Marine archaeologists have discovered the remains of a schooner that sank in Lake Michigan in the late 1800s.
The Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Society announced this month that its searchers discovered the Margaret A. Muir on May 12 in 50 feet (15.2 meters) of water off the coast of Algoma, Wisconsin.
156-year-old schooner sunk in Lake Michigan discovered intact with well-preserved artifacts
The Muir was a 130-foot (39.6 m) three-masted schooner built in 1872. The ship was heading from Bay City, Michigan to South Chicago, Illinois with a large cargo of salt, and had nearly reached Annapee, now known as the Algoma, before it sank in a storm on the morning of September 30, 1893.
Diver Zach Whitlock explores the wreckage of the Margaret A. Muir in Lake Michigan near Algoma, Wisconsin, on June 2, 2024. The schooner sank during a storm in September 1893. Searchers discovered the wreckage on May 12, 2024. (Tamara Thomsen/Wisconsin Historical Society via The Associated Press)
Six crew members and Captain David Crowe made it to shore in a lifeboat, but Crowe’s dog went down with the ship, according to the association. “I would rather lose any amount of money than have that beast die,” Crowe said, according to a news release from the association.
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Brendon Beyrod, the society’s president and a Great Lakes shipwreck researcher, convinced the society to launch a search for the Muir last year, narrowing the search area to about five square miles based on past records. Searchers conducted their final search of the day on May 12, passing over the wreck while retrieving sonar equipment.
Images from the wreck showed the ship’s deck collapsing and its sides falling outwards.
