Copyright Chicago Tribune
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior. After enduring hurricane-force winds and waves of 25 feet in 42-degree weather, the 729-foot ship named for the president of Northwestern Mutual went down in 520 feet of water. Twenty-nine crew members died, and Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot immortalized the saga in his 1976 song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” The disaster was a reminder of the importance — and danger — involved in the shipping of goods on the Great Lakes. The University of Buffalo estimates thousands of vessels — 6,000 or more — lie at the bottom of the five freshwater lakes that also include Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario. Several hundred could lie beneath the waves in the part of Lake Michigan that falls under Illinois’ jurisdiction, according to the University of Illinois. All are protected under the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987, so potential pirates beware. New wrecks are still being found. The F.J. King was discovered on June 28 near Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula. Here’s a look back at some of the shipwrecks — from small excursion boats to a massive German submarine — that rest near Chicago’s lakefront. Louisville: Sept. 29, 1857 A lookout inside the belfry at the County Courthouse, the Tribune reported, noticed around 11 p.m. a steamer or propeller on fire about 10 to 15 miles out into Lake Michigan. The Mather & Co. vessel had just departed Chicago for St. Joseph, Michigan. According to the Louisville’s captain, fire was discovered between decks that held 400 barrels of flour, 25 cords of wood and 30 bales of broom corn. A general fire alarm was rung, which brought hundreds of spectators to the lakefront. Out of 40 to 50 people aboard the boat, firefighter John Hannan was the only death. He drowned as passengers and crew disembarked for three lifeboats. Ironically, the propeller had been damaged by fire the previous year while in port on Lake Erie and had been rebuilt. Lady Elgin: Sept. 8, 1860 The 252-foot, side-wheel steamer ship headed from Chicago to Milwaukee on Lake Michigan collided with the lumber schooner Augusta just before midnight during a thunderstorm. Because the Augusta was under sail, it had the right of way, but the ship was difficult to see since it was running without marker lights. The collision left Lady Elgin with a gash in its side and it sank 2 to 3 miles east of Highland Park within half an hour. Remains of the vessel — nicknamed the “Titanic of the Great Lakes” — lie beneath about 60 feet of water. In Lake Michigan’s first national sanctuary, nearly 100 possible shipwrecks could reveal tales of the superhighways of the Great Lakes Many of those on board — including members of a Democratic organization from Milwaukee — didn’t know how to swim. Lifeboats were few. About 100 passengers were swept south to Winnetka where they were rescued by residents and Northwestern students, according to the Winnetka Historical Society. An estimated 300 to 400 others died. In the aftermath of the disaster — the greatest loss of life on the Great Lakes — better lighting became required on ships. Seabird: April 8, 1868 A predawn fire aboard the Goodrich Lines’ side-wheeler caused the passenger ship to burn and sink off Waukegan into Lake Michigan and 72 to 100 people were killed. The fire was started by a porter who tried to throw a bucket of hot coals overboard into a stiff wind. The coals blew back onto a lower deck and ignited freshly varnished tubs. This fire (and others like it) was a factor in the maritime industry’s conversion to iron ships. Wells Burt: May 20, 1883 Debris that washed up along the North Shore signaled that something had gone wrong. The three-masted schooner named the Wells Burt had been making its way from Buffalo to Chicago, its hold laden with coal. The ship was nearing its destination when a mighty storm welled up on Lake Michigan. The 200-foot, 756-ton Wells Burt was tossed like a toy on 20- to 30-foot waves. As the captain lost control of the craft, its side turned to the waves and the mizzenmast tore loose. The ship swamped and sank, the captain and his 10 men all lost. Divers practice rescues in Lake Michigan at sunken 19th-century cargo ship When the storm cleared, the wreck of the Wells Burt was only 3 miles off Evanston, in about 40 feet of water, with the tips of its remaining masts still visible above the lake surface. Now it’s visited by divers. Reutan: July 10, 1886 Capt. George Wellington Streeter’s steamboat Reutan ran aground on a Near North Side sandbar now known as Streeterville. The captain and his wife, Maria, who came to be known as “Ma,” just stayed there on the boat as silt gathered and eventually connected it to the shore. From the 1880s until his death in 1921, Streeter asserted not just ownership but sovereignty over 186 acres of prime lakeshore, between the mouth of the Chicago River and Oak Street. An 8-foot bronze statue of Streeter — wearing a top hat and holding his pup Spot — stands at the northwest corner of McClurg Court and Grand Avenue. David Dows: Nov. 29, 1889 The only five-masted schooner to sail the Great Lakes, the majestic David Dows was famous in its day. But the massive boat only sailed eight years before running into a terrible storm on Thanksgiving Day in 1889 while being towed as a coal-hauling barge. Abandoned by its crew, the David Dows went down in about 40 feet of water about 15 miles southeast of the Chicago harbor, its masts sticking out of the water for years. Thomas Hume: May 21, 1891 The schooner named for a lumber baron left Chicago — with Capt. Harry Albrightson and six crew members — bound for Muskegon, Michigan, with another schooner, the Rouse Simmons. Due to rough water conditions, the Rouse Simmons turned back. The Thomas Hume did not and was not seen again. Members of the Michigan Shipwreck Research Association have dived to the schooner’s final resting place — 147 feet down, 22 miles from Belmont Harbor. Rouse Simmons: Nov. 23, 1912 The rickety, three-mast schooner was better known to Chicagoans as the “Christmas Tree Ship.” During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Capt. Herman Schuenemann stacked thousands of fresh-cut trees on a variety of ships and brought them from the northern tip of Lake Michigan to the southwest corner of the Clark Street bridge. It was risky business. Winter gales and ice were a constant threat. On Nov. 9, 1898, a storm sank the S. Thal near Glencoe, which was owned by Schuenemann’s brother. The captain and his four-man crew drowned, the Tribune reported. Schuenemann, who would have been aboard, had stayed behind to care for the family lumber business and tend to his wife, who had given birth to twins Hazel and Pearl. When the Christmas spirit foundered in Chicago Disaster struck again in 1912. Weather conditions were deteriorating when the Rouse Simmons started to bob home. As temperatures dropped, sheets of rain and 50-mph winds kicked up waves, some as high as 20 feet, over the deck. Icy spray coated the trees, the weight pushing the ship’s hull lower into the water. A Coast Guard station spotted a ship matching the schooner’s description with its sails in tatters and its flag at half-mast to signal it was in distress. But the ice-covered ship seemed to vanish in the storm on Nov. 23. There were no survivors. Many of the trees and evergreen wreaths that washed ashore were sold to benefit the families of the 17-member crew. Schuenemann’s wife, affectionately called the “Christmas Tree Lady,” continued the family business, according to Tribune archives. She died in 1933. Her daughters carried on for a few more years, but by the end of the decade, the “Christmas Tree Ship” seemed to fade from the city’s landscape. A diver found the well-preserved remains of the Rouse Simmons in 1971, resting in about 170-foot deep waters northeast of Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Silver Spray: July 15, 1914 From the shore of Hyde Park, it looks like a boulder. But look closer and you’ll see it’s the wreck of a ship that sticks out of the water at Morgan Shoal. The excursion ship — originally known as Bloomer Girl when it was built in 1894 — shuttled passengers to and from Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, Milwaukee and Chicago. On July 15, 1914, the 109-foot-long Silver Spray ferry ran aground of the limestone shoal on its way to pick up 200 University of Chicago students for a tour of Gary’s steel mills. Just off Chicago in Lake Michigan sits an oasis of diversity — Morgan Shoal The cook onboard carried on, making stew for the seven-man crew who refused to leave the steamer. Three days later, efforts to free the Silver Spray proved unsuccessful. The crew rowed ashore near 51st Street and waves finally broke apart the boat. Sunbathers used pieces of the boat’s wood for bonfires until police stopped them. Now only a few pieces of the Silver Spray — the boiler, propeller and a few other bits of machinery — are identifiable. UC-97: June 7, 1921 The Museum of Science and Industry houses German submarine U-505, but did you know there is another nearby? The World War I vintage UC-97 sits on the bottom of Lake Michigan in 300 feet of water. It was one of six U-boats handed over to the U.S. Navy following the armistice in November 1918. After a rough Atlantic crossing with an American crew in spring 1919, the 185-foot-long sub participated in wreath-laying ceremonies outside New York harbor to honor the victims of submarine attacks during the war. The sub then traveled the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes from May through August, with engine trouble forcing cancellation of the Lake Superior leg of the tour. Explorers find 2nd-oldest confirmed shipwreck in Great Lakes The UC-97 tied up at Navy (then Municipal) Pier on Aug. 16, 1919, just 17 days after the end of the Chicago race riots. An electric “welcome” sign was illuminated at City Hall for the occasion. On June 7, 1921, the U-boat was towed 20 to 30 miles due east of Fort Sheridan. The Wilmette fired 18 rounds at the UC-97 — the first live shells fired on the Great Lakes since the War of 1812 — and within 15 minutes, the U-boat was on its way to the bottom. (The Wilmette, interestingly, began its life as the Eastland, the pleasure boat that capsized on July 24, 1915, in the Chicago River, drowning 844 people. After that disaster, no one would ride the vessel anymore, so the Navy bought it and outfitted it for war.) Favorite: July 28, 1927 The small excursion boat, which helped rescue survivors of the Eastland disaster 12 years earlier, was cruising from Fullerton Avenue in Lincoln Park to Municipal (now Navy) Pier when it capsized due to a sudden squall half a mile off North Avenue. Twenty-seven people — 16 children, 10 women and one man — drowned when the boat tipped over. The remaining passengers were rescued by nearby yachts and sailboats. Gertrude Berndt, who survived the Eastland, was aboard the Favorite with six members of her family when they were tossed into the lake. Four of them drowned, but Berndt and her daughter survived. “The crew was very dumb and very slow about helping,” Berndt told Tribune reporter James O’Donnell Bennett. “The screaming was terrible. It entered my mind, and I think I said the words, ‘If it’s my time to go, it’s my time to go — and my baby’s time to go.’ After that I kept my mouth shut.” Berndt said life preservers for children were below deck or “were not convenient.” An inquest found the boat’s conversion from a one-deck boat to a two-deck version with an awning during its construction could have made it easier to tip over during the storm. Buccaneer: Sank in 2010 After years of submitting an application and awaiting approvals, the 98-foot World War II vessel was intentionally sunk to the bottom of Lake Michigan to serve as a new destination for divers. “Every diver would like to find a ship at the bottom looking like a ship in a bottle, but it’s a long time getting there,” said scuba diving instructor Capt. Jim Gentile. “Now I can’t wait to dive it.” Want more vintage Chicago? Become a Tribune subscriber: It’s just $1 for a 1-year digital subscription. Thanks for reading! Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago’s past.
