Chicago Shores Drag Another Ship to Davy Jones' Locker
By JoshMogerman in Miscellaneous on Jun 19, 2010 9:00PM
The wreck of the Francisco Morazan off the coast of Michigan's South Manitou island and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake Shore. photo by xray10.
The Buccaneer, sunk intentionally by a local dive operator who will sell trips out to the wreck, will also likely attract lots of fish to its protective hull (much like an artificial reef in the ocean). It stands as the dozenth shipwreck lying off our shores. That sounds like a lot. Except that, according to the Chesterton Tribune, there are six-to-ten thousand shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, three hundred of which sunk at the southern end of Lake Michigan. The toll taken by a stormy Lake on the busy turn-of-the-century shipping trade has fueled an underground wreck dive culture throughout the region, with groups established to document and protect the sites.
Among the most celebrated of our wrecks is the Lady Elgin, a steamer that went down seven miles off of Winnetka in 1860, taking 300 passengers with her. Remains from the boat lie less than 60 feet down and are a well-known site for area divers (though permission is necessary from the Lady Elgin Foundation).
Headed to Indiana Dunes National Lake Shore? You can visit the wreck of the Muskegon just 200 yards off shore from the biggest sand dune in the area, Mount Baldy. She was set adrift in 1911 after catching fire while anchored at Michigan City. Eventually the boat drifted and came to rest near shore where she lays in only 30 feet of water. The wreck of the J.D. Marshall sits nearby, less than a mile off of the National Park’s shores.
Michigan’s shores were particularly brutal back in the day, with an array of wrecks off of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park and in the UP. But you need not go that far to channel your inner-Titanic explorer. Check out video of the George Morley wreck, located in only 12’ of water just off Greenwood Beach in Evanston, after the jump.