WHITEFISH POINT, Mich. — Shipwreck hunters have discovered a merchant ship that sank in Lake Superior in 1940, taking its captain away during a storm off the coast of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society and shipwreck researcher Dan Fountain announced Monday the discovery of the 240-foot bulk carrier Arlington in about 650 feet of water about 37 miles north of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. .
The Arlington left Port Arthur, Ontario, on April 30, 1940, fully loaded with wheat, and sailed for Owen Sound, Ontario, under the command of Captain Frederick “Tatey Bug” Burke, a veteran of the Great Lakes.
But as the Arlington and a larger freighter, the Collingwood, traveled across Lake Superior, they encountered dense fog and then a storm after nightfall that battered both ships. The Arlington began to take on water.
The ship’s first mate ordered the Arlington to sail on a course along Canada’s north coast, which would have provided some cover from wind and waves, but Burke recanted and ordered his ship back on a course across the open lake, the ship’s officers said. explorers.
Early on May 1, 1940, the Arlington began to sink and the ship’s chief engineer sounded the alarm. The crew began abandoning ship “in fear for their lives and without orders from Captain Burke,” they said in a statement.
All crew reached the Collingwood safely, except Burke, who went down with the Arlington. Reports indicate he was last seen near the wheelhouse, waving at the Collingwood, minutes before his ship disappeared into the lake.
The Shipwreck Society said in the statement that “no one will ever know the answer” to why Burke acted as he did before his ship was lost.
“It’s exciting to solve another of Lake Superior’s many mysteries and find Arlington so far out in the lake,” Fountain said in a statement. “I hope this final chapter in her story can provide some closure to Captain Burke’s family.”
The Arlington was discovered thanks to Fountain, a resident of Negaunee, Mich., who has been conducting remote sensing in Lake Superior for about a decade looking for shipwrecks, said Bruce Lynn, executive director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society.
Fountain approached the group with “a potential target” near the northern tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula, and the Arlington was discovered last year, Lynn said.
“These targets don’t always yield anything… but this time it was an absolute wreck. A wreck with an interesting and perhaps mysterious story,” he said in the statement. “If Dan had not contacted us, we may never have found the Arlington.”