In 1876, Whitefish Bay and an 80-mile stretch of coastline to the west were well on the way to acquiring the sobriquet Shipwreck Coast. The steamer Comet became one of its victims.

  One of the directors of Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society recently commented, “There are 550 confirmed shipwrecks [in Lake Superior], and 200 of them are right out our back door at Whitefish Point.”(1)

  The director goes on to point out that in the heyday of Great Lakes shipping, there was no radar, and ships relied on lighthouses and people’s eyes and ears to navigate safely. They encountered a multitude of hazards, and the director stated there were still hundreds of wrecks in Lake Superior, the largest freshwater sea on the globe, waiting to be found and identified.

   An article in The Minneapolis Star in July 2019 gave an account of one search on the South Shore.(2)  Two shipwreck hunters, after exhaustive research and motivated by a sailor’s tale, are ready to scour the sea floor. “The 22-foot boat has reached the ‘X’ [Jerry Eliason] and Kraig Smith have marked, electronically, in Lake Superior.  They believe that some 800 feet below the July morning’s gentle waves is a steel steamer called the Hudson, sunk by frigid gales in 1901 and never seen again”.

   This duo of hunters, aged 66, started out as divers. These days they search waters too deep to dive. Their equipment today includes computers, fish finders, side-scan sonar, and underwater cameras. They spent the next seven hours glued to a TV screen.

   The article references two near-legendary shipwreck historians, Merryman and Stonehouse. Ken Merryman of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society helped establish the rules for hunters: “They preserve and document. Never pilfer or grandstand.”  Frederick Stonehouse, author of a dozen books, is quoted as saying, “The search for the unknown, that’s what drives them. They get no income from it. They don’t get a bunch of glory. But they do solve the question”.

   On this occasion, the search was tiring. “The camera shows the lake’s bottom and, ahead, nothing . . . Pass after pass, they’re creating a pattern [of grid lines] . . . They turn around, guess again.”

   The article describes the hunters finding clues: scouring, and debris. “By noon, they’re frustrated. They formulate a plan, Eliason turns the boat around for another pass, farther south this time. Just as he revs the motor, a bright object appears on the screen.

    “‘We’re seeing wreck!’ Eliason hollers. ‘There it is, there it is!’”

   The MPR News reported this discovery on September 22, 2019.(3)

   After its sinking in August 1875, no one saw the Comet. One catalogue of shipwrecks (undated) offers this comment: “At a depth of 230 feet the Comet presents a serious challenge to any diver. Extraordinary skill is required to perform meaningful tasks at this depth. Further, the Comet presents a hazardous tangle of broken timbers and cables at its resting place in Whitefish Bay.”(4)

   Sport or recreational divers rarely operate below 130 feet. In the 1970s and ’80s, reports of sightings dribbled in, scant on details.

   An article titled WhiteFish Point: The Deep Wreck Holy Land of Lake Superior, dated 1996, offers a narrative and photos of the discovery of Comet.(5)  The article begins with “the large amounts of shipping traffic traveling between Lake Superior and Lake Huron combined with the often-severe storms common to this area have contributed to Whitefish Point becoming known as the ship graveyard of the Great Lakes. Whitefish Point, jutting our into the lake, forms an obstacle that all vessels must successfully avoid.”

   The article continues, “Ships that have sunk in Lake Superior are remarkably well preserved due to the cold (36° F) fresh water. Little decay occurs in the near freezing temperatures.”

   With regard to the Comet, the author summarizes “diving impressions” without attribution to any diver: “The Comet sits upright in 240 ft. of water sunk deep into the mud bottom. The two wooden support arches, added to the Comet to increase structural strength, tower over the wreck. The steam engine, condenser, rudder, and prop arc still in good condition located on the stern section. Towards the center, the silver ore spills out into the mud where the Manitoba split the hull. The wool and pig iron bars are located just forward of the steam engine along with the smoke stack. The cabins were ripped off during the sinking and are scattered in the debris field around the wreck. The ship’s name “Comet” is still visible on the condenser tank adjacent to the steam engine.”

   A website called Superior Trips LLC, created by Ken Merryman, adds some information about the Comet.(6) The Comet is an opportunity to see intact hogging arches on a shipwreck. These arches run the length of the ship to stiffen it. Much of the cabin structure has collapsed and covers much of the deck. The name Comet is ornately painted on one of the cylinders. There are piles of pig iron ingots lying in the hull. The stern of the ship supporting the rudder and propellor is intact.

   As you read this, seventy tons of silver ore lie in the mud around the wreck of the Comet. The scent of a treasure ship tweaks the nostrils of shipwreck hunters. So, find out the value of a ton of silver ore from Montana mines in 1875. Subtract the cost of transportation from mule train to railway train to the port of Duluth to the smelter in Buffalo, New York, and add in the cost of smelting. Then you have an idea of what that silver was worth.

   Is the ore worth salvaging today? Just one more thing: the ore is protected by the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve.

 END NOTES

1  Article by Jillian Manning, July 13, 2024 in Northern Express. Quote is attributed to Corey Atkins, Communications and Content Director of Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society. Credit Superior Shipwrecks | Features | Northern Express .

2  Article by Jenna Ross in Mnneapolis Star Tribune, September 24, 2019. Credit These eccentric divers discover, preserve and share Lake Superior’s deepest, lost shipwrecks.

3  News story. Credit 118 years after ship sank in Lake Superior gale, searchers locate wreck 825 feet beneath the surface | MPR News.

4  Catalogue item on Shipwreck Explorers. Credit Steamer Comet

5  Article in Advanced Deep Diver Magazine, editorial in Deeptech Journal, 1996. Text by Richard Mannesto, photos by Terry Begnoche. Credit Whitefish Point The Deep Wreck Holy Land of Lake Superior.

6  Superior Trips LLC offers trips with reasonable terms: “All trips listed are ‘split expenses’ and typically cost around $200 to $400 per week depending on how many on the boat, food, gas and marina prices.” Credit Shipwreck Comet.