On March 3, The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS) announced it has located the wreckage of a ship that sank 130 years ago.
The ship, called the “Atlanta,” went down after a storm on May 4, 1891. Now, over a century later, the ship has been discovered at the bottom of Lake Superior.
Although its discovery was announced last week, GLSHS actually found the Atlanta last summer.
Communications and Content Director of GLSHS Corey Adkins said they delayed the announcement to allow “time for research to give the wreck context,” according to MSN News.
GLSHS, partnered with Marine Sonic Technology, used “Side Scan Sonar” to canvas around 2,500 miles of the lake in order to locate the ship. Its wreckage was found 35 miles from Deer Park, Michigan, which is in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, close to Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario.
A Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) captured videos and pictures of the ship where it sits, 650 feet below the surface. At first, the water was hard to see through, making it difficult to identify the ship, but researchers from GLSHS finally confirmed its identity.
“Atlanta! It’s totally the Atlanta,” one of the researchers said while viewing the footage.
Due to Lake Superior’s cold temperatures, the shipwreck is astonishingly well-preserved.
“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. It is truly ornate and still beautiful after 130 years on the bottom of Lake Superior,” GLSHS’s Executive Director Bruce Lynn commented, per CBS News.
Because a special permit is needed to take anything from the shipwreck and its depth poses additional challenges for divers, the society has elected to leave it as is.
“That wreck is so deep compared to others we’ve found; we would like to leave this one undisturbed,” Adkins explained.
On May 4, 1891, the Atlanta, a 172-foot schooner-barge with no sails, was being towed by a steamer called the Wilhelm when a storm over Lake Superior caused the towline to snap.
Seven individuals were aboard the ship, and they arrived at Crisp Point Life-Saving Station via lifeboat. According to WEAU News, Crisp Point is around 24 miles east of Deer Park.
Unfortunately, as they approached the station, the lifeboat accidentally flipped over and several of the individuals were swept away by the current. Two people survived.
The U.S. Coast Guard, called U.S. Life-Saving Service at the time, recorded the testimonies of the survivors. In the recordings, the service mentioned that all three masts on the ship had broken, which video footage now reveals was true.
Its wreckage remained undiscovered at the bottom of Lake Superior for 130 years until it was found in 2021. Before the Atlanta, GLSHS’s last discovery was in 2007 when they located the steamer “Cyprus,” which had sunk in Lake Superior in 1907.
The Detroit Free Press said that 30,000 mariners have died in more than 6,000 Great Lakes shipwrecks. The society states that an estimated 550 shipwrecks still remain undiscovered in Lake Superior alone.
There is no safe harbor in Lake Superior between the coast of Munising and Whitefish Point, Michigan, a stretch of about 80 miles. It is believed that more than two hundred shipwrecks lie somewhere along that coast.
