The SS ''Michigan'' was a passenger

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

which transported passengers across 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 ...

. At the time of her construction, she was one of the most advanced steamships on the Great Lakes. She offered luxurious accommodations for customers that included heated cabins, ornate wood design, and oil paintings to decorate the rooms. She was then purchased by Milwaukee Railway Company. In February 1885, the ''Michigan'' became entrapped in an

ice pack An ice pack or gel pack is a portable bag filled with water, refrigerant gel, or liquid, meant to provide cooling. They can be divided into the reusable type, which works as a thermal mass and requires freezing, or the instant type, which cools ...

, and a few weeks later, sank in

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 ...

Vessel

Built by the

Detroit Dry Dock Company The Dry Dock Complex consists of six interconnected buildings located at 1801–1803 Atwater Street in Detroit, Michigan, as well as the remains of a nearby dry dock at 1900 Atwater Street. The 1801-1803 Atwater complex is also known as the Globe ...

, in

Wyandotte, Michigan Wyandotte ( ) is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 25,058 at the 2020 census. Wyandotte is located in southeastern Michigan, approximately south of Detroit on the Detroit River, and it is part of the coll ...

, the vessel was constructed with an iron

double hull A double hull is a ship hull design and construction method where the bottom and sides of the ship have two complete layers of watertight hull surface: one outer layer forming the normal hull of the ship, and a second inner hull which is some dis ...

, with separating the two hulls. In addition to the double hull, another safety feature added were five

watertight compartments Floodability is the susceptibility of a ship's construction to flooding. It also refers to the ability to intentionally flood certain areas of the hull for damage control purposes, or to increase stability, which is particularly important in comb ...

. 123 cabins were built and were said to be the grandest on the lakes, decorated with velvet carpets, furniture and oil paintings. Her powerhouse was an F & AC

compound engine A compound engine is an engine that has more than one stage for recovering energy from the same working fluid, with the exhaust from the first stage passing through the second stage, and in some cases then on to another subsequent stage or even st ...

with and cylinders and a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

. Along with the engine was an ,

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central h ...

built by De Soto & Hutton of Detroit. She displaced 1,024 tons, with a length of and a width of feet. The ''Michigan'' had a sister ship, the .

Rescue attempt

In the early months of 1885, a harsh winter had embattled shipping in Lake Michigan. It was typical for Great Lakes shipping trade to halt during the winter months, but an early thaw in February prompted it to resume. As soon as ships left port with cargo, however, a strong winter storm engulfed the region, dropping of snow in two days. This caused many ships to become trapped in ice, including two ships owned by the Milwaukee Railway Company, and one of which being the ''Michigan''s sister ship, the ''Wisconsin''. Knowing the ships and their cargo could be doomed if left to the ice pack, the Milwaukee Railway Company decided to use the ''Michigan'' and her double hull to break through the ice and free the trapped vessels. On the morning of February 9, 1885, the ''Michigan'' and 29 crewmen set up to see if they could free the ships. That same day, a

nor'easter A nor'easter (also northeaster; see below), or an East Coast low is a synoptic-scale extratropical cyclone in the western North Atlantic Ocean. The name derives from the direction of the winds that blow from the northeast. The original use o ...

gale blew the ship off course and into an ever-growing ice pack. By the morning of the February 11, she was trapped in ice, drifting south. By February 17, conditions remained unchanged, and the crew was quickly exhausting resources. The captain ordered that the sailors ration supplies, and also enlisted a 17-man team to venture across the frozen lake, to land, as the condition of the ship had worsened. The group, using ice picks, axes, and ropes, covered and reached shore in

Allegan County, Michigan Allegan County ( ) is a Counties of the United States, county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 120,502. The county seat is Allegan, Michigan, Allegan. The name was coined by Henry Rowe School ...

. On February 21, a resupply ship arrived to restock the trapped ''Michigan''.

Loss

February turned to March, and although conditions improved, and ice began to break up, the ''Michigan'' was still trapped. On March 19, the pressure on the hull was causing the ship to moan, as the double iron hull buckled, and continued throughout the night. A tugboat, the ''Arctic'' arrived the following day as a last effort to free the ''Michigan''. The ''Arctic'' became trapped as well. Late that night, the hull of the ''Michigan'' became

inundated A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrolog ...

with water, and the captain ordered to abandon ship. All the crew was able to leave the doomed ship and watched as ''Michigan'' slipped under the ice, to the bottom on Lake Michigan. The crew then waited on the stuck ''Arctic'' until conditions improved, and the tug was freed. There were no deaths in the sinking. There is in fact one death recorded in the Archives, that of Seaman 2/c Charles George Gunderson. Griffith - Hackthorn (archives.gov) Card No. 1043.

Discovery of the wreck

In 2005 the

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 ...

located the wreck of ''Michigan'' in of water off

Holland, Michigan Holland is a city in the western region of the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated near the eastern shore of Lake Michigan on Lake Macatawa, which is fed by the Macatawa River (formerly known locally as the Black River). ...

. The discovery was made while MSRA members were scanning the lake bottom with David Trotter of

Canton, Michigan Canton, officially the Charter Township of Canton, is a charter township of Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the township had a population of 98,659. Canton Township is Michigan's second most-populated townshi ...

, who was also instrumental in the 2001 discovery of the ''H.C. Akeley'' off Saugatuck. She lies upright on the lake bottom, with her cabin structure collapsed, because of the violent impact with the lake floor when she sank.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Michigan 1885 ships Maritime incidents in March 1885 February 1885 events 2004 archaeological discoveries Shipwrecks of Lake Michigan Great Lakes ships Ships built in Wyandotte, Michigan