MANITOWOC, Wis. – Shipwreck hunters announced finding a coal freighter that sank in Lake Superior’s notoriously treacherous Whitefish Bay in 1892. The discovery was last summer but not announced until the Wisconsin Underwater Archeological Association’s annual meeting in Manitowoc. Some 26 people died when the 300-foot Western Reserve came apart apart in a relatively mild August 1892 squall. One person survived. The ship was among the first all-steel carriers on the Great Lakes. Those aboard included the ship’s owner, Peter Minch, and his family. They were on an adventure excursion. The wreck was located 600 feet deep west of Soo Locks.
The Western Reserve. A post-wreck investigation at the time blamed brittle steel contaminated with phosphorus and sulfur was used to build the ship. Laws followed to test steel used in shipbuilding.