Crews Find 153-Year-Old Lake Superior Shipwreck: See Photos

WHITEFISH POINT, MI — Shipwreck hunters found a long-lost hull that sunk over 150 years ago in Lake Superior during a bad storm.

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society said the hunters found the 144-foot Barquentine Nucleus under 600 feet of water around 40 miles northwest of Vermilion point on Lake Superior.

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society said the Nucleus was first discovered in the summer of 2021 with the help of sonar and a remotely operated vehicle. The wreck was then positively identified in 2022.

The Nucleus sank on Sept. 14, 1869, when it got caught in a bad storm after leaving Marquette with a load of iron ore. During the storm, the ship began taking on water, forcing the crew to abandon the ship and take to the lifeboat.

After a few hours, the crew tried flagging down a ship while drifting in Lake Superior on a lifeboat. The ship never stopped, but another ship passing by did stop and pick them up. There were no deaths in the ship wreck.

"This is a pretty significant shipwreck…considering its age, the fact that it is a Barquentine and we can’t overlook the vessel’s checkered past," the Shipwreck Society's Executive Director Bruce Lynn said. "The wreck site is littered with shovels too…and a few dinner plates, which speaks to their work and shipboard life."

Officials from the society also said The Nucleus is one of the oldest ships to sink along Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast and was surprisingly still in good condition.

"The stern was intact," the historical society's Director of Marine Operations who found the ship Darryl Ertel Jr. said. "It had a straight back stern, and then the port side also was intact. And so, I was more excited about it because at first, I thought it was totally in pieces on the bottom."

The wreck was actually not the first time the Nucleus ended up underwater, as it had previously sank twice before. The legend of this notorious ship grew even further after it rammed and sank the S.S. Detroit in the Lake Huron in 1854.