Wreck of Historic Schooner that Sank in 1893 Found in Lake Michigan

July 27th, 6:00 AM EDT

By NEWSnet Digital Team

The stern of the sunken schooner Margaret A. Muir sits on the bottom of Lake Michigan near Algoma, Wis., on June 2, 2024.

Wisconsin Historical Society

ALGOMA, Wis. (NEWSnet/AP) — Marine archaeologists have discovered the wreckage of a schooner that sank in Lake Michigan in the late 1800s.

The Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association announced on July 19 that its searchers found the Margaret A. Muir in 50 feet of water off Algoma, Wisconsin, on May 12.

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

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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.

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