19th Century Sunken Ship Found 'Amazingly Intact' In Lake Superior
DEER PARK, Mich. (AP) - A schooner that sank in 1899, killing nine people including the captain's wife and infant child, has been discovered in Lake Superior, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society said.
The group announced this week it had located the 199-foot Nelson about 7 miles offshore from the Upper Peninsula village of Deer Park. It is submerged in over 200 feet of water and is "amazingly intact," the society said in a news release.
"This is a shipwreck that we've wanted to find for a very long time," said Darryl Ertel, the society's director of marine operations.
Divers and staffers using the society's underwater remotely operated vehicle identified the schooner. It was found as the group used side-scan sonar to explore the lake bottom in an area believed to be the resting place for hundreds of shipwrecks.
The Nelson was being towed west with a load of coal by a steamer called A. Folsom, bound for the Keweenaw Peninsula, when a gale struck from the northwest. Capt. A.E. White of the Folsom was trying to turn the vessels and head for the protection of Whitefish Bay when the towline snapped and the Nelson quickly sank.
The lone survivor was the Nelson's captain, Andrew Haganey, who had stayed aboard the imperiled vessel to lower its lifeboat, which held his wife and child and the seven-member crew. He then dove into the water to get aboard the lifeboat himself, just as the schooner sank, pulling the lifeboat with it.
Haganey floated ashore on pieces of wreckage and was treated at the Deer Park lifesaving station.
The shipwreck society is documenting the story of the Nelson and eventually will tell its story at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point, executive director Bruce Lynn said.
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