Shipwreck sleuths have hit maritime gold in Lake Michigan, pulling history from the depths in the form of a "remarkably intact" 1886 steamship called the Milwaukee. Uncovered by members of the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association (MSRA), this underwater ghost has spent nearly 140 years at rest following a fog-induced collision.
In a discovery that seems almost cinematic, yet anything but, Valerie van Heest and the MSRA team used old newspaper clippings to set the stage for their successful search. "It was newspaper accounts of the sinking that provided the clues we needed to locate the shipwreck," van Heest said, according to CBS News.
The MSRA announced the find live at their annual film festival held in Holland, Michigan. The Milwaukee was found in June 2023, lying serenely in 360 feet of icy water, using side-scan sonar, followed up by ROV footage, as reported by MLive. The steamship was a 135-foot vessel with three decks, once bustling with passengers and freight before its repurposing to haul lumber post the Wall Street panic of 1873.
Not content with just discovering the Milwaukee, researchers were surprised by its form. The pilothouse and aft cabin were smaller than expected, a modification deduced to have been made for maximizing its lumber-carrying capacity. "The pilothouse on the wreck looks nothing like the octagonal pilothouse in the historic photo," Valerie van Heest observed, as Mlive reported. This revelation was backed by Craig Rich, who deduced, “We realized that Lyman Gates Mason, who owned the Milwaukee, had made both the pilothouse and the aft cabin smaller in order to maximize the amount of lumber the ship could carry on each run.”
As for the ill-fated day of collision, smoky air from Wisconsin wildfires created conditions for disaster. Both captains, heedless of maritime rules in conditions blinding them, failed to slow their steamers, ultimately leading to Milwaukee's demise. Describing the aftermath, "Pandemonium broke out on the Milwaukee. The captain went below deck and saw water pouring in," according to the shared narrative at MSRA's annual presentation, as per Audacy. Mercifully, no lives were lost; all hands made it to the Hickox, the striking vessel before the Milwaukee succumbed to the depths.
