Shipwrecks on Lake Superior
"The man who has experienced shipwreck shudders even at a calm sea." ~Ovid
Lake Superior has had many shipwrecks due to its harsh conditions. These include the Algoma, America, Chester A Congdon, Chisholm, George M. Cox, Cumberland, Emperor, Glenlyon, Kamloops, Monarch, and tug in five finger bay. The following three ships were ones that I found interesting and wanted to look a little more into.
America
The America was a 183 foot long lake steamer. It went down on June 7, 1928, in the morning, after departing the Washington Island dock, under First Mate John Wick, the ship hit a shoal (a large number of fish), this tore a hole in the hull, the vessel couldn't survive. Captain Edward Smith tried to bring the ship to shore, but it sank in a small bay, her resting place to this day. All of the passengers and crew escaped safely, but the ship died. Its bow is now viewable 2 ft below the surface and visitors can view it and scuba dive around it on their way into Windigo. The America used to be a key link to transferring fish and supplies when Isle Royale was thriving in commercial fishing. The America has tried to be brought back up to a museum in Duluth, but dangerous conditions on the lake stopped this. It was rumored to have been sabotaged by a diver who wanted the ship to stay at the bottom. There's now an average of 500 scuba dives per year to visit the America. Years have now worn down on it so the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society has been in the process of restoring it, it has an estimated 10 years completion time.
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Algoma |
Cumberland |
The Algoma was a 264 foot long passenger ship. It sunk on November 7, 1885, on a route to Port Arthur. It was caught in a blinding snowstorm, it ended up splitting into 2 pieces. The bow drifted off and sank into deeper waters. 14 passengers survived, however, a total of 46 passengers and crew died. This shipwreck was the single largest loss of life in all of Lake Superior's history. In 1886, the Algoma was for the most part salvaged, but it has never been proven whether or not the bow was salvaged or is still sunk somewhere in Lake Superior.
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The Cumberland was a 214 foot long wooden side wheeler. It was built in 1871 and it sunk on July 24, 1877. It was going from Thunder Bay to Duluth, there was extremely dense fog and it was driven into a reef, it sunk by hitting coral. Salvage tugs tried to free it, but a fall storm broke the ship into pieces. It became Isle Royale's first recognized major shipwreck, In 1985, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places list by the NPS Submerged Cultural Resource Unit.
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