''Hennepin'' is a

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. Angela Croome reported in January 1999 that there were approximately ...

off the east coast of

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

, west of

South Haven, Michigan South Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. Most of the city is in Van Buren County, although a small portion extends into Allegan County. The population was 4,403 at the 2010 census. Because of its position on Lake Michigan, at the ...

. The ship was originally built in October 1888 and sank on August 18, 1927.

Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates Michigan Shipwreck Research Association (MSRA) is an American non-profit corporation based in Holland, Michigan. Formed in 2001 by the former directors of the committee which originally established the Southwest Michigan Underwater Preserve, thei ...

found the ship in 2006 and conducted several dives to assess the condition of the wreck. The wreck was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on February 1, 2008. She is significant as the first self-unloading

bulk carrier A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo — such as grains, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement — in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, econom ...

Career

The ship was originally built as ''George H. Dyer'' by the firm of Wolf and Davidson in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

. She was equipped with a steam engine at the time. The ship changed owners a few times, and in 1898, she was later ''Hennepin'', after

Louis Hennepin Father Louis Hennepin, O.F.M. baptized Antoine, (; 12 May 1626 – 5 December 1704) was a Belgian Roman Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Recollet order (French: ''Récollets'') and an explorer of the interior of North Amer ...

, an explorer of the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

. On June 27, 1901, the ship caught fire in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

. The fire damaged most of the upper deck and most of the machinery. The ship was sold to the Lake Shore Stone Company, who fitted her with a conveyor belt and made her a self-unloading ship. This was the world's first self-unloading ship, and it provided the paradigm for the many self-unloading vessels in use. The ship had a 1600-ton capacity. She was put to work loading stone from a

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envi ...

in Stone Haven, Wisconsin. Later, in 1923, she was purchased by Construction Materials Corporation and put to use hauling

construction aggregate Construction aggregate, or simply aggregate, is a broad category of coarse- to medium-grained particulate material used in construction, including sand, gravel, crushed stone, slag, recycled concrete and geosynthetic aggregates. Aggregates ...

from a quarry on the Grand River to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. The hull was wearing out and becoming unstable, so the ship was converted to a barge by removing her engine. She was hauled by the

tugboat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, su ...

s ''Ufasco'' in 1926 and ''Lotus'' in 1927.

Loss

On August 18, 1927, around 10:30 AM, ''Hennepin'' ran into a

squall A squall is a sudden, sharp increase in wind speed lasting minutes, as opposed to a wind gust, which lasts for only seconds. They are usually associated with active weather, such as rain showers, thunderstorms, or heavy snow. Squalls refer to the ...

in the middle of Lake Michigan. The vessel had sprung a leak, and although the crew worked to save the ship, the pumps could not keep up with the volume of water coming in. The crew worked until 2:30 PM that afternoon, but they were unsuccessful, and the crew abandoned ship for the safety of the tugboat ''Lotus''. ''Hennepin'' finally sank around 6:00 PM. Upon the return to port, Captain Ole Hansen said, "She died a hard death."

Discovery

Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates members were searching for the wreck of

Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501 was a DC-4 propliner operating its daily transcontinental service between New York City and Seattle when it disappeared on the night of June 23, 1950. The flight was carrying 55 passengers and three crew mem ...

in 2006. In the process of mapping out sections of the lake, they discovered debris on the bottom that appeared to be a wreck. At first, they identified a small structure that they nicknamed a "rib cage", but more searching revealed a ship. They sent a team of technical divers to explore the wreck, which was in about of water. The team examined a capstan and discovered the name "G.H. Dyer" stamped onto the cover, which confirmed it as ''Hennepin''. The pilothouse had been blown off when it sank, but the wheel was still in place and intact. The ship had hit

stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...

-first as identified by the wreckage. The conveyor belts and the A-frame crane structure were still in place and further identified the ship as ''Hennepin''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hennepin Great Lakes freighters Shipwrecks on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Buildings and structures in Allegan County, Michigan Maritime incidents in 1927 Shipwrecks of Lake Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Allegan County, Michigan 2006 archaeological discoveries Ships built in Milwaukee