Old newspaper stories provide clues to 19th-century shipwreck in Lake Michigan

On July 9, 1886, the steamship Milwaukee was crossing Lake Michigan en route to Muskegon, a lakeside city, to pick up a load of lumber when disaster struck.

It was close to midnight. The water was calm, but smoke was billowing on the surface due to wildfires in nearby Wisconsin. The Milwaukee headed for a similar wooden ship, the C. Hickox, which was headed for Chicago.

Suddenly there was a dense fog. Hickox crashed on the shore of Milwaukee. A few hours later, the Milwaukee sank to the bottom of Lake Michigan.

It lay there unknown until last June, when a team of researchers from the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association searched for the wreck using news clippings from the time, historical weather data and remote sensing equipment to determine its location. of. They then spent the summer filming the wreck. Researchers announced the discovery on Saturday.

The Milwaukee is one of an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, association director Valerie Van Hest said in an interview. About 2,000 have been discovered.

A team led by Ms. Van Hest and her husband, Jack Van Hest, learned about the sinking of the Milwaukee by consulting a database of missing ships compiled by regional historians.

“Discovering means learning something about these missing ships and then sharing it with the public,” Ms Van Hest said. “And more broadly, it is a reminder of how the development and settlement of the Great Lakes region,

To locate the Milwaukee, Ms. Van Hest’s team found newspaper articles contemporary to its sinking, including The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Daily News, The Muskegon Chronicle and The Inner Ocean, which reported on shipping accidents in the Great Lakes. Had given report.

From news clippings, Ms. Van Hest and other researchers were able to determine the ship’s route and, from descriptions given by its captain, where the accident occurred.

Those reports also presented tragic details of what happened to Milwaukee.

Dennis Harrington, keeping an eye on the Milwaukee, was the first to see lights from Hickox, and immediately informed the captain of the Milwaukee. Standard operating procedures would have called for both ships to slow down, steer to starboard and blow their steam whistles. But the captains of both the ships did not do anything, thinking that the visibility was fine.

Then a dense fog descended, and by the time it cleared it was too late for any ships to turn. Hickox rammed into the Milwaukee, causing Harrington to fall overboard. He would be the only casualty of the accident.

According to the Shipwreck Research Association, there was panic aboard the Milwaukee when the captain went below deck to find that the ship was taking on water. He gave a distress signal to alert Hickox, and the crew spread a canvas sail over the damaged side of the ship to slow the movement of the lake water.

During their research, the team discovered that at least one other ship, a steamer named The City of New York, had come to try to rescue the Milwaukee. This, along with Hickox, put Milwaukee in the middle of them. The crews of both ships used ropes in a futile attempt to keep the Milwaukee afloat.

About two hours after the impact, the stern of the Milwaukee fell below the surface and the ship sank to the bottom of the lake. Apart from Harrington, everyone aboard the damaged ship got safely aboard the Hickox, which took both crew to Chicago.

Using historical weather data, researchers were able to determine a more precise location for Milwaukee. Searching the lake bottom with a remotely operated vehicle, researchers found the ship “remarkably intact,” the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association said in a statement.

Before sinking, the Milwaukee had been operating for nearly two decades. It was started in 1868 by the Northern Transportation Company of Ohio to transport passengers and goods. It was originally 135 feet long and had two decks – one for passengers and one for luggage. In 1881, it was sold and remodeled so that it could carry more luggage and fewer passengers.

Two years later, Lyman Gates Mason purchased the Milwaukee to transport his company’s lumber to Chicago. In video collected from the remote vehicle, researchers discovered something: Mr. Mason had reprogrammed the ship. By shrinking the aft cabin and pilothouse, Mr. Mason created more space for cargo and transformed the ship into something that looked very different from the only surviving photograph of the Milwaukee.

It was the 19th discovery of the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association since it was founded nearly two decades ago.

Ms. Van Hest, who is also a museum exhibit designer, said it took two days to find Milwaukee and that it was “the fastest search we’ve ever done.” Sometimes the search can take years, he said, depending on how calm the waters are and how far from shore the team must travel.

Even though the Milwaukee is a fairly common ship for its time, Ms. Van Hest said the wreck is an indication of how dependent the Great Lakes region was on lumber at the time.

,So to speak, these are museum artifacts at the bottom of the lake that have stories to tell,” she said.