The wreckage of a 130-foot ship has been found off the coast of Wisconsin, more than 130 years after it plunged to the bottom of Lake Michigan with the captain’s beloved dog aboard, marking a new discovery of a vessel that sank in the treacherous waters of the Great Lakes more than a century ago.
The historic schooner Margaret A. Muir was found May 12 by a group of wreck hunters using historical documents and high-resolution sonar, the Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association said in a news release.
The team, which included Wisconsin Maritime Museum Executive Director Kevin Cullen, noticed something on the sonar “that didn’t look natural” just before they were about to call off the day’s search, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. After looking more closely, Cullen remembers thinking, “That’s it! That’s really it!”
Tamara Thomsen, Wisconsin Historical Society
The Muir sank on the morning of September 30, 1893, while sailing from Bay City, Michigan, for Chicago with a crew of six men and a cargo of salt. Captained by Captain David Clow, the schooner encountered a severe storm and the hold eventually flooded. Clow ordered the crew to abandon ship.
“No sooner had the order been given than the ship lurched violently and plunged to the bottom, taking with it Captain Clow’s faithful dog and the ship’s mascot,” the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association said.
The crew managed to keep their lifeboat afloat by bailing out water that was drifting in 5-metre seas. Thanks to the expertise of their 71-year-old captain, the “frozen and soaking wet” crew finally managed to reach shore, after losing all their belongings in the sinking, the association said.
But the most valuable lost cargo was Clow’s dog, who was described as “an intelligent and faithful animal, and a great favourite of the captain and crew.”
The captain said, “I would rather lose any amount of money than see that brute perish as he did.”
The Muir was eventually found about 50 feet underwater, just a few miles off the coast of Algoma, Wisconsin.
“It had remained undetected for more than a century, despite the passage of hundreds of fishing boats each season,” said the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association.
Tamara Thomsen, Wisconsin State Historical Society
The three-masted ship is no longer intact. Its deck has collapsed, but all deck equipment remains at the site of the sinking, including two giant anchors, hand pumps and its bow windlass, the association said.
Wreck hunters collected thousands of high-resolution images that were used to create a 3D photogrammetric model of the site, which was posted on YouTube.
The Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association said it plans to work with state officials to nominate the site to the National Register of Historic Places — a designation that was granted to the Trinidad, a schooner that sank 12 years before the Muir and was discovered intact in the same waters in 2023.
The discovery of the Muir came just weeks after the sinking of the Milwaukee steamboat was found more than 1,150 feet below the surface of Lake Michigan. A few months earlier, a man and his daughter on a fishing trip found the remains of a ship which sank in Lake Michigan in 1871.
Experts estimate that more than 6,000 ships have sunk in the Great Lakes since the late 1600s.
