The discovery of the L.R. Doty, a 300 foot-long steamship, is a monumental event for Brendon Baillod, the president of the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association. The 112 year old ship is the largest wooden boat unaccounted for and was carrying corn from South Chicago to Ontario, Canada in October 1898. The boat disappeared after 30 foot waves combined with heavy winds engulfed the entire ship.
The Doty should have been able to handle the weather. The ship was only five years old, and the 300-foot wooden behemoth's hull was reinforced with steel arches.Read more about the L.R. Doty shipwreck in Lake Michigan
But it was towing a small schooner, the Olive Jeanette, which began to founder in the storm after the tow line apparently snapped, Baillod said. The Doty probably sank when it came to the schooner's aid. All 17 of its crew members died, along with the ship's cats, Dewey and Watson.
5 Comments:
Cool Thanks for the info.
Corn...darn! Was hoping for some treasure:)
This is definitely an interesting post. I would love to see it in person. Thank you for sharing.
Unfortunate that these crew members died and the cats, too. But for archeologists, this must be a great underwater discovery for research. On another note, I used to visit Bay City, Michigan. Beautiful state.
There are still a number of lost sunken ships in the Great Lakes to be found. Rare, but sometimes items from these wash-up on shore.
Post a Comment
We appreciate comments, but we delete SPAM.