Group finds steamship that sank in Lake Superior 115 years ago

A 195-foot wooden steamship that vanished 115 years ago on Lake Superior has been found, a shipwreck museum group announced Wednesday.

Officials with the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society said they found the vessel, "The Adella Shores," in 2021 with sonar technology in more than 650 feet of water about 40 miles northwest of Whitefish Point in the Upper Peninsula. The ship sank on May 1, 1909.

"I pretty much knew that had to be the Adella Shores when I measured the length of it because there were no other ships out there missing in that size range," Darryl Ertel, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society's director of marine operations, said in a statement. "As soon as I put the (sonar) down on it for the first time, I could see the design of the ship and I could match it right up to the Adella Shores."

The group said Adella Shores was one of many ships that left the dock and was never seen again on Michigan's Great Lakes throughout history.

"Not only is she a member of the 'Went Missing' club, those ships on the Great Lakes that disappeared with all hands only to be discovered decades later, she still tells a very poignant and fascinating story," Fred Stonehouse, a maritime historian, said in a statement. "The folks out there actively hunting for shipwrecks like the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society and helping to (tell) that story. And they keep looking for the (stories) that are not yet told and (the ships) not yet found."

Stonehouse is also the author of the book "Went Missing: Unsolved Great Lakes Shipwreck Mysteries."

Officials said the Adella Shores was bound for Duluth with a load of salt before it sank. The vessel was following a larger steel steamship called the Daniel J. Morrell through a thick ice flow, according to the group. As they rounded Whitefish Point on the eastern end of Lake Superior, they encountered a fierce northeast wind and it caused the Adella Shores to fall two miles behind and out of sight of the Morrell, the Great Lakes shipwrecks group said.

All 14 crew members of the Adella Shores and the 735-ton vessel were never seen again, the society said. Searchers found some debris but no bodies, according to the shipwreck group.

According to the group, the Morrell's captain later said he thought the Adella Shores may have struck a large ice flow that punctured her wooden hull and sank.

Officials also said misfortune seems to have followed the vessel in its short history.

It was built in 1894 in Gibraltar for the Shores Lumber Company and the company's owner named the boat after his daughter, Adella.

Another of the owner's daughters, Bessie, christened the ship with a bottle of water instead of the traditional bottle of champagne because the family was strict about alcohol, the society said.

Members also said sailors of that era likely saw the substitution as a bad omen.

During its career, the Adella Shores sank twice in shallow waters, was later refloated and put back into service each time, the group said.

The shipwreck is one of several vessels the Sault Ste. Marie-based Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society found while searching Lake Superior in recent years. The society runs the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point near Paradise, Mich.

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society said in February that it found a 244-foot bulk carrier called The Arlington in about 650 feet of water 35 miles north of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. In October, the group announced it found a 238-foot freighter named The Huronton about 20 miles northwest of Whitefish Point. Last April, it said it found the C.F. Curtis and the Selden E. Marvin, two of three vessels that sank together more than 100 years ago in a deadly squall on the lake.

In February 2023, the Great Lakes shipwreck group also discovered a Barquentine cargo ship named "The Nucleus."

In 2022, the society announced it found a schooner-barge that sank in the lake 35 miles off Deer Park in 1891 called The Atlanta.

The group said it waits to announce its discoveries for a reason.

"People often ask us why we wait so long to release shipwrecks that we find," said Corey Adkins, a spokesperson for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society. "Each of these stories is important and deserves to be told with the utmost honor and respect. (The Society) has had some banner years of discovery and a lot of research goes into each announcement, ensuring that we accurately tell each story."

cramirez@detroitnews.com

X: @CharlesERamirez