A shipwreck has been discovered after 128 years - and it tells a tragic story of how the sailors died.
A cargo vessel that sank in the Thunder Bay area of northern Lake Huron in North America in 1894 has finally been found.
The 191-foot-long Ironton collided with another ship in September 1894 and both vessels sank.
The Ironton's captain and six sailors climbed into a lifeboat but it was dragged down with the ship, and only two crew members survived.
Historians, underwater archaeologists and technicians located the wreckage in 2019 and remotely controlled cameras were deployed to scan and document it.
The sanctuary plans to reveal the location in the coming months and is considering placing a mooring buoy at the site.
The Ironton is sitting upright on the lake bottom, hundreds of feet down, "remarkably preserved" by the cold, fresh water like many other Great Lakes shipwrecks.
No human remains were seen, but the lifeboat remains tethered to the bigger vessel, which is a poignant confirmation of witness accounts from 128 years ago.
Nearly 200 shipwrecks are believed to rest within or near the boundaries of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, which includes the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena, Michigan, and some 4,300 square miles of northwestern Lake Huron.
Several factors made the area a “shipwreck alley” for more than two centuries until modern navigation and weather forecasting reduced the danger, said Stephanie Gandulla, the sanctuary’s resource protection coordinator.
The late 1800s was a busy period for Great Lakes commerce. Thousands of schooners, or sailing ships, and hundreds of steamers hauled cargo and passengers between bustling port cities such as Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland.
The Ironton and another schooner barge, the Moonlight, were being towed northward from the Lake Erie town of Ashtabula, Ohio, by a steam-powered ship, a common practice then. They were bound for Marquette, a port city on Lake Superior.
The steamer broke down in heavy Lake Huron seas around 12:30 a.m. the morning of September 26, and the Ironton and the Moonlight disconnected their tow lines and drifted apart.
The Ironton crew set sails and fired up its engine but veered off course and ran into the Ohio, a freighter loaded with 1,000 tons of flour, about 10 miles off Presque Isle, Michigan.
The Ohio soon foundered, and its crew of 16 was rescued by the Moonlight. The Ironton stayed afloat for more than an hour before sinking.
Newspapers at the time quoted William Parry as saying he and two other Ironton sailors bobbed in the heaving lake for about 30 minutes until another steamer, the Charles Hebard, showed up.
Parry struggled aboard as the Hebard lowered a lifeboat with several of its crew. They picked up the other two Ironton men.
But a wave overturned the craft, flinging everyone into the water. Hebard crewmen tossed lines and pulled all to safety except Ironton mate Ed Boswick, who couldn’t muster the strength to hold on.
The discovery of the Ironton has brought some closure to the families of those lost in the shipwreck and the communities impacted by its loss.
The sanctuary plans to continue its work of uncovering the lost chapters of maritime history.
