Archaelogists locate wreck of steamship that sank in Lake Superior in 1892
After 132 years, the final resting place of the 300-foot (90-metre) steel steamer Western Reserve has been discovered roughly 60 miles (100 kilometres) northwest of Whitefish Point in Lake Superior, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS) confirmed on Monday, March 10.
GLSHS, using side-scan sonar aboard the research vessel David Boyd, made the initial discovery in late summer 2024. Subsequent remotely operated vehicle (ROV) deployments confirmed the identity of the wreck, revealing a ship broken in two, with the bow section resting on top of the stern in approximately 600 feet (180 metres) of water.
"Knowing how the 300-foot Western Reserve was caught in a storm this far from shore made a uneasy feeling in the back of my neck, a squall can come up unexpectedly, anywhere, and anytime," said Darryl Ertel, GLSHS Director of Marine Operations.
Western Reserve was notable for being one of the first all-steel vessels on the Great Lakes. One newspaper called the ship "the inland greyhound" for its outright speed on the lakes.
Western Reserve was owned by millionaire Captain Peter G. Minch, a highly respected shipping magnate. Minch took a large part of his young family aboard his ship (under command of Captain Albert Myer) for a late-summer cruise up through Lake Huron enroute to Two Harbors, Minnesota.
The weather was pleasant until they reached Whitefish Bay, when rough weather led the crew to drop anchor to await better conditions. They soon weighed anchor and steamed into Lake Superior, a gale overtook the ship, and late in the evening of August 30, 1892, the ship started to break up and sink.
The Minch family and the Western Reserve crew safely boarded and launched the vessel’s two lifeboats. Almost immediately, one lifeboat overturned and many of the ship’s crew disappeared. The remaining lifeboat occupants recovered only two of the crewmen.
Within ten minutes the big ship was gone, leaving one lifeboat with the Minch family and the remaining crew aboard. They would be in the gale and darkness for the next ten hours.
The second lifeboat continued to drift until the following morning, when it overturned close to shore with its occupants still on board.
Only one person who was on board Western Reserve, wheelsman Harry W. Stewart of Algonac, Michigan, survived the ordeal.
Ertel and his brother and first mate, Dan Ertel, have been looking for Western Reserve for over two years.
"We side-scan looking out a half mile per side and we caught an image on our port side," said Darryl Ertel. "It was very small looking out that far, but I measured the shadow, and it came up about 40 feet (12 metres).
"So we went back over the top of the ship and saw that it had cargo hatches, and it looked like it was broken in two, one half on top of the other and each half measured with the side-scan 150 feet (46 metres) long and then we measured the width and it was right on so we knew that we’d found Western Reserve."