A ship carrying a load of coal when it sank in a storm in 1891 has been discovered in Lake Superior off the coast of the Upper Peninsula. The vessel called the Atlanta was found well preserved in the extremely cold water. Bruce Lynn, executive director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, told Michigan News Network the crew of the 172-foot schooner-barge made it into a lifeboat as the vessel began to sink.
“As they were getting closer to the shoreline, something happened,” Lynn said. “The boat did turn over. One of the accounts indicates that someone crabbed an oar, meaning the oar got caught in the wrong direction. It practically turned over the boat. A few people fell into the water.”
Lynn says only two crew members survived by the time they were rescued. The shipwreck was found at a depth of 600-feet about 35-miles off Deer Park, a community on the Lake Superior shoreline.
