On July 9, 1886, the steamboat Milwaukee was passing through Lake Michigan on its way to the lakeside city of Muskegon, Michigan, to pick up a shipwreck cargo of lumber.
It was close to midnight. The water was calm, but smoke was rising to the surface from wildfires in nearby Wisconsin. Milwaukee headed toward a similar lumber ship, the C. Hickox, which was certain for Chicago.
Suddenly there was a thick fog. Hickox hit the Milwaukee side. Just a few hours later, the Milwaukee sank to the underside of Lake Michigan.
It lay there undiscovered until June last yr, when a team of researchers from Michigan Shipwreck Research Association discovered the shipwreck, using newspaper clippings from the period, historical weather data and distant sensing equipment to pinpoint its location. They then spent the summer filming the wreck. Researchers announced the invention on Saturday.
The Milwaukee is one in every of about 6,000 to 10,000 shipwrecks within the Great Lakes, Valerie van Heest, the association’s director, said in an interview. About 2,000 have been discovered.
The team, led by Ms. van Heest and her husband, Jack van Heest, learned concerning the sinking of the Milwaukee from a database of missing ships compiled by regional historians.
“Making a discovery means finding out something about these missing ships and then sharing it with the public,” Ms van Heest said. “It is essentially a reminder of how the Great Lakes region was developed and settled“
To locate the Milwaukee, Ms. van Heest’s team found news reports about its sinking, including the Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Daily News, The Muskegon Chronicle and The Inner Ocean, which reported marine accidents on the Great Lakes.
Based on press clippings, Ms. van Heest and other researchers were able to determine the ship’s course and describe the crash site based on the captain’s account.
These reports also provided a harrowing account of what happened to Milwaukee.
Dennis Harrington, a lookout on the Milwaukee, was the first to notice the lights on the Hickox and immediately notified the captain of the Milwaukee. Standard operating procedures would have required both ships to slow down, turn to starboard and sound their steam whistles. However, the captains of both ships, thinking that visibility was good, did neither of these things.
Then a thick fog rolled in, and by the time it cleared it was too late for either ship to turn. Hickox rammed into Milwaukee, throwing Harrington overboard. He would be the only victim of the accident.
According to the shipwreck research association, pandemonium broke out aboard the Milwaukee when the captain went below deck to check if the ship was taking on water. He sent a distress signal to alert the Hickox, and the crew stretched a canvas sail over the ship’s damaged side to slow the rush of water in the lake.
During their research, the team discovered that at least one other ship, a steamship called The City of New York, had arrived to try to save Milwaukee. He teamed up with Hickox, placing Milwaukee between them. The crews of both ships tried unsuccessfully to keep the Milwaukee afloat using ropes.
Nearly two hours after the collision, the Milwaukee’s stern dipped below the surface and the ship sank to the bottom of the lake. Apart from Harrington, everyone aboard the doomed ship made it to safety aboard the Hickox, which carried both crews to Chicago.
Using historical weather data, researchers were able to determine a more accurate location for Milwaukee. Searching the lakebed with a remotely operated vehicle, scientists found the ship “remarkably intact,” the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association said in a statement.
The Milwaukee floated for almost two decades before it sank. It was commissioned in 1868 by the Northern Transportation Company of Ohio to transport passengers and freight. It was originally 55 feet long and had two decks – one for passengers and one for cargo. In 1881 it was sold and rebuilt so that it could carry more goods and fewer passengers.
Two years later, Lyman Gates Mason bought Milwaukee to ship his company’s lumber to Chicago. In video footage taken from a distant vehicle, investigators discovered something: Mr. Mason had rebuilt the ship. By shrinking the aft cabin and wheelhouse, Mr. Mason created more room for cargo and transformed the ship into something that looked very different from the only surviving photo of the Milwaukee.
It was the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association’s 19th discovery since its founding about two decades ago.
Ms. van Heest, who is also a museum exhibition designer, said it took two days to find Milwaukee and that it was “the fastest discovery we have now made.” Sometimes, she added, the search can take years, depending on how calm the water is and how far from shore the team has to travel.
Although the Milwaukee itself is a fairly ordinary ship for its time, Ms. van Heest said the wreck was indicative of how dependent the Great Lakes region was on timber at the time.
“These are, so to speak, museum artifacts at the underside of the lake which have stories to tell,” she said.
