By Jim Bloch
The Great Lake Shipwreck Historical Society’s big find for 2023: The freighter Huronton resting on its side 800 feet under the surface of Lake Superior, sunk 100 years ago.
The society announced its find on Oct. 11, exactly a century after the 238-foot Huronton was rammed on its port side by the bulk freighter Cetus and sank amid dense fog and smoke from burning forests. The freighter went down about 27 miles north of Whitefish Point, now home to the shipwreck society and museum.
The wreck was discovered earlier this year by Darryl Ertel, the society’s director of maritime operations, and crew aboard the 47-foot research vessel David Boyd. The Boyd is “equipped with twin 692 Detroit Diesels and a Phantom S4 Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle capable of diving to depths of 1,400 feet,” according to the society. “The Boyd is also equipped with the latest Marine Sonics Dual Frequency SideScan Sonar, digital underwater imaging equipment, digital interface surface recording technology, and navigational gear.”
The Huronton was running empty, heading uplake. The 416-foot Cetus, fully loaded, was downbound.
A detail of artist Robert McGreevy’s sketch of rescuing a bulldog from the sinking Huronton.
Both ships were traveling too fast for the weather conditions.
“Many ships tied up at docks in the (St. Mary’s) river or went to anchor in Whitefish Bay until visibility improved,” wrote Mark L. Thompson in his 2004 “Graveyard of the Lakes.” “At one time, 66 ships were stalled in the river.”
A number of captains saw pulling up in a storm as a kind of sacrilege, preferring to barrel into the howling elements.
“Looking out of the pilot house window at the bow of his ship stuck into the side of the Huronton, the master of the Cetus had the good sense to keep his engine turning ahead, thereby holding his ship into the badly holed Canadian (vessel), temporarily slowing the flow of water into the hull,” wrote Thompson.
This gave the Huronton crew time to scramble aboard the Cetus, which saved their lives.
It also gave first mate Dick Simpell time to rescue the Huronton‘s mascot, a bulldog.
Simpell “sprang into action and jumped back onto the Huronton and ran to the flooding stern section, untied the dog, and carried it onto the Cetus before the Huronton plunged into the depths,” said the shipwreck society in its press release.
The freighter Huronton on the bottom of Lake Superior.
“When all of the crewmembers were safely aboard his ship, the master of the Cetus backed his vessel out of the Huronton,” wrote Thompson. “As soon as the gaping hole in the side of the Huronton was opened up, tons of water began to pour into its cargo hold and the ship settled deeply in the water. It soon took a heavy list and plunged to the bottom.”
“Finding any shipwreck is exciting,” said Bruce Lynn, executive director of GLSHS. “But to think that we’re the first human eyes to look at this vessel 100 years after it sank, not many people have the opportunity to do that.”
Cleveland Ship Building, of Lorain, Ohio, founded in 1886 and operating out of the old Cuyahoga Steam Furnace Company, built the steel-hulled Huronton in 1898. At the time it went down, the cargo ship was on its fourth owner, A.E. Matthews of Toronto.
“It’s truly part of our past,” said Lynn.
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
