WHITEFISH POINT, MICHIGAN — When it was launched in 1890 in a Cleveland, Ohio shipyard, the Western Reserve was considered one of the safest ships on the Great Lakes.
But just two years later, the 300-foot-long steamer – one of the first all-steel vessels on the lakes – went to the bottom of Lake Superior, ultimately costing the lives of 27 passengers and crew, including its owner and several members of his family.
For 132 years, its wreckage remained undiscovered beneath 600 feet of water.
This week, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society revealed the Western Reserve has been located about 95 kilometres northwest of Whitefish Point, not far from the Canada/US border.
GLSHS staff actually made the discovery late last summer using side-scan sonar aboard their non-profit research vessel.
The finding was then confirmed with a remotely operated submersible that recorded images showing the ship broken in two, with the bow section resting on top of the stern.
The Western Reserve was owned by millionaire Capt. Peter G. Minch, the head of a shipping empire.
According to the GLSHS, near the end of August 1892 he decided to take family members on a cruise through Lake Huron and Lake Superior to Two Harbors, Minnesota.
Conditions were good until the vessel reached Whitefish Bay, where rough weather developed, prompting the crew to drop anchor for awhile.
When they resumed the voyage, the ship was overcome by a gale and began to break up on the evening of Aug. 30.
All aboard managed to get into two lifeboats, but one overturned almost immediately.
The other lifeboat, containing the Minch family and a number of crew members, remained afloat for 10 hours on the stormy waters before capsizing the next morning within just a mile of the shore.
Only one person – wheelsman Harry Stewart – survived to tell the world what happened.
"Every shipwreck has its own story, but some are just that much more tragic," said GLSHS's executive director, Bruce Lynn. "It is hard to imagine that Captain Minch would have foreseen any trouble when he invited hs wife, two young children, and sister-in-law with her daughter aboard the Western Reserve for a summer cruise...It just reinforces how dangerous the Great Lakes can be any time of the year."
The society's director of marine operations, Darryl Ertel, and his brother and first mate Dan Ertel, had been looking for the Western Reserve for over two years.
"We were side-scan looking out a half-mile per side, and we caught an image on our port side," he said. "It was very small looking out that far, but I measured the shadow, and it came up about 40 feet," Ertel explained.
The team then went back over the top of the wreckage and observed the ship was in two pieces, with each about 150 feet long.
"Then we measured the width, and it was right on, so we knew we'd found the Western Reserve."
The GLSHS has found 13 shipwrecks in the past three years, but calls its latest discovery the most important one it's ever made.
