HOLLAND, Mich. – A steamship that sank in Lake Michigan in the late 1800s was found “remarkably intact” at the bottom of the lake in 2023 -- more than 130 years later.
Underwater explorers found the steamship, named Milwaukee, in June 2023 at the bottom of Lake Michigan off the coast of Holland, Michigan. The ship sank in 1886 after being rammed by another ship, the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association reports.
The 135-foot-long ship was originally built in 1868 to transport passengers and cargo on its three decks, and did so throughout the Great Lakes for years. By 1883, the ship was purchased by a lumberman to haul his lumber to Chicago. The original three decks were converted down to one -- though there was no photographic evidence of the deck changes, the association said.
That was, until the ship was spotted by researchers after only two days of searching. Valerie van Heest, an explorer who led the search team and also founded the research association, said the team relied on “newspaper accounts of the sinking that provided the clues” needed to create a search grid and find the steamer.
The team first spotted the ship on a side-scan sonar, which detects and map objects on the seafloor. A few weeks later, the underwater explorers actually saw the ship -- the first time it was seen in 137 years.
“This marks the 19th shipwreck our team has found off the shores of West Michigan,” Valerie van Heest said.
Van Heest and her team, which includes her engineer husband Jack, noticed the ship was resting upright on the floor of Lake Michigan with its forward mast still standing. The steamship was even facing northeast, which is the direction it was traveling before colliding with another ship the night that it sank in July 1886.
Though researchers discovered the ship in 2023, the news wasn’t shared with the public until March 2024 at Holland’s annual film festival. Following their discovery, the team spent months “working to film the wreck and confirm its identity,” the research association reports.
The ship was ultimately confirmed to be the Milwaukee, though explorers determined that the ship’s pilothouse and sleeping cabin had also been altered, in addition to the deck changes. Below is an illustration of the ship as it was seen on the floor of Lake Michigan, created by Valerie van Heest.
How did the ship sink?
The Milwaukee set sail off the coast of Holland the evening of July 9, 1886, according the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association.
“The lake was calm, but there was some smoke blowing across the water from forest fires in Wisconsin that week,” the association said last weekend on social media.
That same night, a “nearly identical ship” named C. Hickox sailed off the coast of Muskegon, Michigan -- which is about 35 miles north of Holland. That ship was heading for Chicago, carrying lumber and towing a loaded schooner barge, as well.
“Both ships sailed such an exact course that at about midnight, when each was off Holland, they were bearing straight for each other,” the association said.
The Hickox ultimately crashed into the side of the Milwaukee, “popping hull planks” and “nearly capsizing the ship.” Crews from the Hickox and a third ship that responded to a distress signal tried to keep Milwaukee afloat, but the ship’s stern sank beneath the surface about two hours after the crash.
Everyone aboard the sinking ship was able to find safety aboard the Hickox.
Learn more about the Milwaukee and what caused it to sink from the research association here.
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