WHITEFISH POINT, Mich. — Explorers have found the wreckage of a schooner-barge that sank in a Lake Superior gale more than 130 years ago.
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society announced the discovery of the Atlanta in 650 feet of water some 35 miles off Deer Park, an unincorporated community in Luce County.
The 172-foot-long Atlanta was under tow with a load of coal on May 4, 1891, when it was ensnared in a northwest gale. The gale snapped the line connecting the Atlanta to the steamer Wilhelm and, with no sails, the boat was quickly in peril.
The crew took to its lifeboat, according to the shipwreck society, and strained at the oars for several hours before it pulled within sight of the Crisp Point Life-Saving Station — only to overturn attempting to make landfall. Only two sailors made it ashore.
The survivors said the Atlanta's three masts had broken away in the storm, and a video taken by a remote operated vehicle, or ROV, showed where all had broken off flush with the deck. The masts were not found.
The Atlanta was found amid 2,500 miles of Lake Superior bottom mapped in summer 2021 using side scan sonar, operated by Marine Sonic Technology in partnership with the shipwreck group.
Given the chill of Lake Superior, the Atlanta is unusually well preserved, according to shipwreck society executive director Bruce Lynn.
"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," he said. "It is truly ornate, and still beautiful after 130 years on the bottom of Lake Superior."
Another Atlanta, a steamer built the same year the schooner-barge Atlanta sank, carried passengers and freight on Lake Michigan until it was lost to fire in 1906. Towed toward shore as it burned, it sits in only 17 feet of water, 800 feet off Cedar Grove, Wisconsin.
