Great Lakes Shipwreck Found 100 Years After Sinking

Published Jun 11, 2013 11:29 AM by The Maritime Executive

Almost 100 years after the Henry B. Smith freighter sunk during a storm in Lake Superior, a group of shipwreck hunters believes it has found the ship. It also appears that much of it is largely intact.

According to the Associated Press, the wreck was discovered last month in about 535 feet of water off the shore of Marquette, Michigan. The name of the ship has not yet been confirmed, but all signs indicate it's the Henry B. Smith. The shipwreck is sitting in the middle of a spilled iron ore cargo.

Details on exactly how this group found the wreck remains unclear, as they hope to use the same method to find other wrecks. They used a culmination of instincts, research and data to pinpoint a specific search area – leading them to the shipwreck just 20 minutes after dropping a sonar unit into the water. An underwater camera captured detail in videos and photos to convince the group that they found the Smith.

The vessel seems to be broken down the middle, with the stern more damaged than the front.

The crew will return to the wreck site in coming months to hopefully piece together the freighter’s fatal accident.

The SS Henry B. Smith was a steel-hulled, propeller-driven lake freighter built in 1906 by the American Ship Building Company. The ship foundered and was lost on November 10, 1913, in Lake Superior during the Great Lakes Storm of 1913 near Marquette, Michigan. She was carrying a load of iron ore at the time of her sinking. There were no survivors from the crew of 25.