ALGOMA, Wis. — Maritime archaeologists have discovered the wreck of a schooner that sank in Lake Michigan in the late 1800s.
The Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association announced this month that its researchers found the Margaret A. Muir on May 12 in a depth of 50 feet (15.2 meters) off the coast of Algoma, Wisconsin.
The Muir was a 130-foot (39.6-meter), three-masted schooner built in 1872. The ship was en route from Bay City, Michigan, to South Chicago, Illinois, with a cargo of bulk salt. She had almost reached Ahnapee, now known as Algoma, when she sank in a storm on the morning of September 30, 1893.
According to the association, the six-man crew and Captain David Clow reached shore in a lifeboat, but Clow’s dog went down with the ship. Clow noted that “I would rather lose a sum of money than have the animal die the way he did,” according to a press release from the association.
The association’s president, Great Lakes shipwreck researcher Brendon Baillod, convinced the organization to conduct a search for the Muir last year after he narrowed the search area to about five square miles using historical data. The searchers made their final pass of the day on May 12, retrieving their sonar equipment as they passed over the wreck.
Images of the wreck show the ship’s deck has collapsed and its sides have fallen outwards.