1869 shipwreck of vessel with "checkered past" found in Lake Superior
A 144-foot shipwreck searchers are calling a "Bad Luck Barquentine" was found underwater in Lake Superior more than 150 years after it sank.
The ship, a barquentine known as the Nucleus, sank for good on Sept. 14, 1869, but had a "checkered past," said the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in a news release on Wednesday. It sunk twice before the incident that left it underwater in Lake Superior, and in 1854, it rammed and sank another ship in Lake Huron.
A barquentine is a type of ship popular in the 1800s with three or more masts that uses a specific style of sails.
The ship was apparently carrying a load of iron ore in September 1869, when it was caught in a bad storm and began to take on water. The crew abandoned ship after the leak became too severe, and the ship sank shortly afterward. The crew was later rescued and no one died, according to the museum.
According to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, the Nucleus is one of the oldest ships to have gone down along Lake Superior's "Shipwreck Coast."
The wreck was found under 600 feet of water using a sonar in the summer of 2021. A remotely operated vehicle owned by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society helped positively identify the wreck in 2022.
Darryl Ertel Jr., the organization's director of marine operations, said the wreck was in good condition.
"The stern was intact. It had a straight back stern and then the port side was also intact," Ertel Jr. said. "And so, I was more excited about it because at first, I thought it was totally in pieces on the bottom."
The society's Executive Director Bruce Lynn said in the news release that the discovery of the wreck was "pretty significant."
"Considering its age, the fact that it is a barquentine, and we can't overlook the vessel's checkered past," he said. "The wreck site is littered with shovels too ... and a few dinner plates, which speaks to their work and shipboard life."
