Twenty-seven people died as a result of the wreck, and what happened is only known because of its lone survivor. The ship went down in the most perilous area of the Great Lakes.
An historic all-steel ship that broke records as it cruised the Great Lakes but ultimately came to a tragic end has been found over 100 years after it sank, researchers announced this week.
The vessel, the Western Reserve, went down 132 years ago during a summer cruise for the family of its millionaire owner and shipping magnate Peter G. Minch. The voyage to escape the heat turned tragic along a stretch of Michigan now known as Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast. The tragedy killed 27 and left only one survivor.
Its final resting place 600 feet deep off the coast of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula eluded researchers until last summer when a crew from the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society discovered the wreckage. They announced the landmark find at the Wisconsin Underwater Archeological Association’s annual Ghost Ships meeting Monday in Manitowoc.
“Every shipwreck has its own story, but some are just that much more tragic,” said Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society Executive Director Bruce Lynn. “It is hard to imagine that Peter Minch would have foreseen any trouble when he invited his wife, two young children and sister-in-law with her daughter aboard the Western Reserve for a summer cruise up the lakes. It just reinforces how dangerous the Great Lakes can be any time of year.”
The Western Reserve was well-known in its time.
The 318-foot ship was one of the first vessels on the Great Lakes made entirely of steel. It was known for speed − even referred to as “the inland greyhound” − and for being among the safest on the lakes. It broke the record for carrying the largest load of coal into Milwaukee during its time, Lynn said. Minch named it after a 3-million-acre area of land in northeastern Ohio along Lake Erie.
Sinking in 1892 earned it another reputation.
Lone survivor tells harrowing tale
The tragic series of events that unfolded when the Western Reserve went down is only known because of a lone survivor, Wheelsman Harry W. Stewart.
The freighter set forth from Cleveland for Two Harbors, Minnesota, on what turned out to be its final voyage in August 1892. On board were Minch’s wife, Anna; their children, Charlie, 9, and Florence, 6; Anna’s sister, Mary Englebry; and her daughter, Bertha, 10. The ship’s other captain, Albert Myers, also had his 19-year-old son on board.
Smooth sailing met the crew up until August 30 when they arrived at Lake Superior’s Whitefish Bay where the wind picked up and the weather shifted.
Minch initially wanted to wait out the storm but only ballast water weighed the ship down since it had no cargo. Instead they headed for open water, entering a stretch so infamous for its dangers that it’s now called Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast.
An estimated 200 or more ships have sunk in Whitefish Bay, according to Lynn.
A powerful gale overtook the ship roughly 60 miles north of Whitefish Point and it began breaking apart around 9 p.m. It sank within about 10 minutes.
Most of the crew got into the ship’s metal lifeboat and the family boarded the wooden one. The metal one capsized almost right away. Only two crew members — one of them Stewart — made it into the wooden boat.
They drifted for about ten hours. A steamship passed but darkness and rain kept survivors from being seen. The lifeboat finally capsized a mile from the Lake Superior’s southeastern shoreline. Only Stewart made it to land.
“If it wasn’t for Harry Stewart, we really wouldn’t know what we know today about the Western Reserve,” Lynn said.
Discovering the shipwreck
The discovery of the Western Reserve came at the end of a two year search by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society. Researchers first picked up the remains of the ship using sonar aboard its research vessel, the David Boyd, on July 22, according to Lynn. Darryl Ertel, director of marine operations, and Dan Ertel, first mate, first spotted the ship.
A remotely operated vehicle confirmed that it was the Western Reserve, lying about 600 feet underwater and broken in two around 60 miles northwest of Whitefish Point in Lake Superior.
“Knowing how the 300-foot Western Reserve was caught in a storm this far from shore made an uneasy feeling in the back of my neck,” said Darryl Ertel. “A squall can come up unexpectedly … anywhere, and anytime.”
The ship’s bell remains intact and many details, like the paint, are still visible, Lynn said.
One of the clearest indications that it was the Western Reserve was a light that matched the only item recovered from the ship — also a light — and currently sits in the National Museum of Great Lakes in Toledo, Ohio.
Newspaper records at the time damned the ship for its brittle steel construction. Many believe the state-of-the-art ship should have been able to stand up to the weather and waves at the time, Lynn said.
The Western Reserve’s sister ship, the W.H. Gilcher, also sank two months later.
The truth behind the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
The Great Lakes are home to an astounding 6,000 some shipwrecks in which 30,000 people have died, according to the Shipwreck Museum.
Most famous of all is the Edmund Fitzgerald, a cargo ship that went down in 1975, killing 29. It sank in the same area as the Western Reserve.
Canadian songwriter Gordon Lightfoot memorialized the disaster with his haunting song The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Lightfoot’s lyrics blame the disaster on the “Witch of November,” the source of memorable and fierce storms on the Great Lakes and it turns out the source of many shipwrecks, according to research.
“When the witch angrily stirs her cauldron, no ship, no matter how large, is safe on the Great Lakes,” according to a 1998 article in Weatherwise magazine by meteorologist Steve Horstmeyer and geographer Mace Bentley.
As the season shifts toward winter, the polar jet stream begins to shift south and can stir up storms that produce howling winds and gigantic waves in November on the Great Lakes.
This makes it the most dangerous time of year to be on the Great Lakes, according to Bentley. About 40% of all the Great Lakes shipwrecks have occurred in November.
The storms can rival hurricanes. The one that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald had sustained winds of 67 mph, gusts of up to 86 mph and waves reported up to 35 feet, according to another vessel in the area that survived the storm.
The Fitzgerald was in the worst possible location for the worst of the storm. Wind and waves from the west hit the freighter’s broadside as it tried to flee south to safety in Whitefish Bay.
It sank in 530 feet of water about 17 miles from Whitefish Bay, near the cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
Wrecks across the Great Lakes
Disaster on the Great Lakes isn’t limited to Whitefish Bay.
One of the worst wrecks in all the Great Lakes happened in Lake Michigan in 1860.
The 252-foot Lady Elgin, a passenger ship, was off the coast of Northern Illinois when another ship rammed into it during a storm. The ship sank and over 300 people died.
In Lake Huron, the Daniel J. Morrell also went down during a fierce November storm, killing 29 and leaving just one survivor.
The freighter was making its last run of the 1966 season when it encountered 70 mph winds and 25-foot waves. The ship broke in two and just one crewmember, Watchman Dennis Hale, was found 40 hours later by a Coast Guard helicopter.
Lake Erie, the shallowest of the Great Lakes, has one of the highest concentrations of shipwrecks in the world. Over 2,000 ships have gone down in the lake and just 400 of those wrecks have been found.
One of the worst was the sinking of the G. P. Griffith in 1850. The ship carrying over 300 passengers caught fire within sight of the Ohio shoreline. Between 250 and 295 people died.
