Cargo ship that sank in Lake Superior 150+ years ago found

A 144-foot steamship that sank more than 150 years ago in Lake Superior has been found, officials with a shipwreck museum said Wednesday.

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society said a Barquentine sailing vessel named "Nucleus" was found in 2021 in 600 feet of the lake's water about 40 miles northwest of Vermilion Point. The ship sank on Sept. 14, 1869.

Officials for the group said The Nucleus is one of the oldest ships to sink along Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast.

"This is a pretty significant shipwreck…considering its age, the fact that it is a Barquentine and we can’t overlook the vessel’s checkered past," Bruce Lynn, the Shipwreck Society's executive director, said in a statement. "The wreck site is littered with shovels too…and a few dinner plates, which speaks to their work and shipboard life."

According to the society, The Nucleus sank when it was sailing from Marquette with a load of iron ore. The vessel got caught in a storm and began to take on water, the group said. The leak forced the crew to abandon the ship and take to the lifeboat. Shortly after, The Nucleus sank.

Adrift in the lifeboat for hours, the crew hailed a ship that was passing by but it didn't stop to help. Officials said another ship came by and picked them up.

And that wasn't the first time The Nucleus ended up below the water. It had sunk twice previously, historians said. In 1854, it rammed and sank the side-wheeler S.S. Detroit in Lake Huron, they said.

Fast forward to 2021, the society found the vessel using sonar technology. Officials said it is in surprisingly good condition.

"The stern was intact," Darryl Ertel Jr., the historical society's director of marine operations and who found the ship, said in a statement. "It had a straight back stern and then the port side also was intact. And so, I was more excited about it because at first, I thought it was totally in pieces on the bottom."

A Barquentine had three or more masts popular at the end of the 19th century because it required a smaller crew than other cargo ships.

cramirez@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @CharlesERamirez