100-Year-Old Shipwreck Found On Bottom Of Lake Superior

WHITEFISH POINT, MI — Officials found the wreckage of a steel bulk freighter that served in World War I and sank on Lake Superior 100 years ago, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society announced Wednesday.

Officials found the Huronton, a 238-foot-long vessel, on the bottom of Lake Superior under roughly 800 feet of water, the society said.

Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society Director Bruce Lynn said the group is the first set of human eyes to look at the vessel in the century since it sank.

"I think about some of the more interesting aspects of what we do as an organization, but the searching for, discovery and documentation of shipwrecks… especially if it's a vessel that sank a hundred years ago, is pretty exciting because, it's truly a part of our past," Lynn said.

Officials said the ship was in an "extremely deep" part of the lake, and it was only the suspicions of Marine Operations Director Darryl Ertel that led them to it.

Ertel said the crew, R/V David Boyd, was towing the society's sonar towfish when the lake's depth suddenly dropped from 300 feet to 800 feet.

"It was just a small 800-foot hole and there was a little sliver in there that was a straight line, but it looked like the size of a thread," Ertel said. "And because it was a straight line, I marked it as a possible target, 4 hours later, we come back on our way home to check it. And sure enough, it was a shipwreck."

The Huronton was empty on Oct. 11, 1923 when it was traveling up bound on Lake Superior in fog, with smoke emitting from forest fires.

At the same time, the 416-foot-long bulk freighter Cetus, which was fully loaded, was traveling down bound in the same area and the two ships crashed into each other.

The bow of the Cetus smashed a gaping hole into the port side of the Huronton, which briefly locked the two ships together. The Captain of the Cetus realized his ship could "plug" the hole and keep the Huronton afloat.

The Captain maneuvered the Cetus just long enough for the other crew to evacuate the doomed ship, including when the Huronton's first mate, Dick Simpell, who went back onboard to rescue the crew's mascot, a bulldog who had been left tied up.

The Huronton then sank into the cold depths of Lake Superior, where it went unseen for 100 years.