The unforgiving depths of Lake Superior have finally relinquished one of their long-held secrets, as the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS) has located the remains of the steel steamship Western Reserve, which met its doom in 1892. The discovery was made in the summer of 2024 with marine sonic technology aboard the society's research vessel, the David Boyd. The GLSHS confirmed the find, sitting about 60 miles northwest of Whitefish Point in over 600 feet of water, via remotely operated vehicle deployments, The Detroit News reported.
The Western Reserve has long been regarded as a symbol of early technological ambition on the Great Lakes. It is one of the first all-steel vessels in the area, designed to break cargo shipping records and presumed one of the safest of its kind. According to WXYZ, the tragic fate that befell its 27 souls is a stark reminder of the latent ferocity of the waters they navigated. Subsumed by a gale on the night of August 30th, the ship succumbed to the elements, leaving hardware Harry W. Stewart of Algonac, Michigan, as the sole survivor in a horrifying ordeal that saw two lifeboats launched and one overturned.
"Every shipwreck has its own story, but some are just that much more tragic," GLSHS Executive Director Bruce Lynn reflected on the loss of the Western Reserve, in a statement obtained by CBS Detroit. The ship's owner, Captain Peter G. Minch, a shipping magnate, had embarked on a seemingly innocuous summer cruise through the Great Lakes with his family, unaware of the tragedy that awaited them.
Finding the Western Reserve was no small feat. It was the culmination of over two years of meticulous searching by Darryl Ertel, the GLSHS's Director of Marine Operations, and Dan Ertel, his brother and First Mate. The breakthrough came when their sonar equipment captured a promising image. "We side-scan looking out a half mile per side and we caught an image on our port side. It looked very small out that far, but I measured the shadow, and it came up about 40 feet," Darryl Ertel recounted their eureka moment, as reported by WXYZ. Further investigation revealed a vessel broken in twain, with each half measuring 150 feet—a definitive match for the elusive Western Reserve.
