Lake Michigan schooner wreckage discovered near Algoma

ALGOMA, Wis. - Marine archaeologists have discovered the wreckage of a schooner that sank in Lake Michigan in the late 1800s just off the shores of Algoma, Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association announced this month that its searchers found the Margaret A. Muir in 50 feet of water on May 12.

The Muir was a 130-foot, three-masted schooner that was built in 1872. The ship was en route from Bay City, Michigan, to South Chicago, Illinois, with a cargo of bulk salt. It had almost reached Ahnapee, which is now known as Algoma, when it sank during a storm on the morning of Sept. 30, 1893.

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A still image taken from the 3D interactive photogrammetry model created by Zach Whitrock and the Wisconsin Historical Society Maritime Archeology program. Zach Whitrock and Tamara Thomsen

According to the association, the six-member crew and Captain David Clow made it to shore in a lifeboat, but Clow’s dog went down with the ship. Clow remarked that "I would rather lose any sum of money than to have the brute perish as he did," according to an association news release.

The association's president, Great Lakes shipwreck researcher Brendon Baillod, persuaded the organization to undertake a search for the Muir last year after narrowing the search grid to about five square miles using historical records. Searchers were making their final pass of the day on May 12 and were retrieving their sonar equipment when they ran over the wreck.

A diver from the Wisconsin Historical Society collects photos for a 3D photogrammetry model of the Muir Tamara Thomsen, Wisconsin Historical Society

Despite lying in 50 ft. of water, the Muir is largely disarticulated. Shown here is a rare internal view of her unusual stepped sternpost construction. Tamara Thomsen, State Historical Society of Wisconsin

Images of the wreck show the vessel's deck has collapsed and the sides have fallen outward.