Scientists have found Lake Huron wreck of 19th century ship that sank in 1894

News Summary

  • Fearing a collision, Moonlight's crew cut Ironton's tow line, setting Ironton adrift.Captain Peter Girard and his crew tried to regain control of the ship, but the wind blew them onto a head-on collision course with the Ohio, which was carrying 1,000 tons of grain.
  • Almost all of the rigging and deck hardware on both ships remained intact.Once the Ohio had been found, the team conducted further research into the weather and wind conditions on the fateful night of the double sinking to narrow down the search area for Ironton.
  • Its discovery could help resolve unanswered questions about the ship's final hours.Schooner barges like Ironton were part of a fleet that helped transport wheat, coal, corn, lumber, and iron ore across the Great Lakes region, towed by steamers.
  • Now the same team has announced its discovery of the wreck of the 191-foot Ironton nearly 130 years after its sinking, so well-preserved in the frigid waters of the Great Lakes that its three masts are still standing, and its rigging is still attached.
  • The crew boarded a lifeboat as the schooner sank but nobody remembered to untie the line securing the lifeboat, so everyone was pulled down with the ship.
  • That's how they found the wreck of the Ohio, along with the Choctaw, a 267-foot steel semi-whaleback steamer that collided with the freighter Wahcondah in dense fog and sank on July 12, 1915.
7 with Ironton, a late 19th century shipwreck, has been located in NOAAs Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.In 1894, a schooner barge called Ironton collided with a Great Lakes freighter call [+4806 chars]