130-Year-Old Shipwreck Found In Lake Superior: Photos

WHITEFISH POINT, MI — Explorers from an Upper Peninsula non-profit found a schooner-barge shipwreck in the frigid water of Lake Superior that sank more than 130 years ago.

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society discovered The Atlanta — a 172-foot schooner-barge — resting beneath 650 feet of icy water, about 35 miles away from Deer Park in Luce County in the Upper Peninsula.

Bruce Lynn, executive director of the non-profit, said much of the ship was still intact, including the gold letters on the ship's nameplate. Since sunlight cannot reach that depth, the water remains in the low 30s, a temperature that preserves shipwrecks.

"It is rare that we find a shipwreck that so clearly announces what it is, and the name-board of the Atlanta really stands out," Lynn said. "It is truly ornate, and still beautiful after 130 years on the bottom of Lake Superior."

The shipwreck hunters searched more than 2,500 miles on the bottom of Lake Superior before finding The Atlanta, which sank during a terrible Lake Superior storm on May 4, 1891. The ship was bound for Port Huron and was carrying a load of coal when the storm hit, snapping the towline and forcing the crew of seven to a lifeboat.

After pulling at the oars for several hours on the lifeboat, the crew came within the site of the Crisp Point Life-Saving Station. But while attempting to land their small boat near the station, Lake Superior's waves overturned it, and only two members of the crew made it safely to the beach. Five were killed in the shipwreck.

The survivors said all three masts broke off during the storm, and video from an ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle) proves, all three masts broke off flush with the deck and are nowhere to be found, the non-profit said.

"No one has to ask where the Atlanta is anymore," said Darryl Ertel, director of marine operations for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society.