The ''Henry Chisholm'' was a wooden freighter that sank off the shore of

Isle Royale Isle Royale National Park is an American national park consisting of Isle Royale – known as Minong to the native Ojibwe – along with more than 400 small adjacent islands and the surrounding waters of Lake Superior, in the state of Michigan. ...

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

in 1898 and the remains are still on the lake bottom. The wreck was placed 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 ...

in 1984.

History

The ''Henry Chisholm'' (Official number 95610) was built in 1880 at Thomas Quayle & Sons shipyards in Cleveland, Ohio, which was considered the best wooden shipbuilders on 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 lak ...

. She was a 265-foot wooden steam-powered freighter, 39 feet in breadth and 20 feet in depth, carrying three masts and a double expansion steam engine with twin

Scotch boiler A "Scotch" marine boiler (or simply Scotch boiler) is a design of steam boiler best known for its use on ships. The general layout is that of a squat horizontal cylinder. One or more large cylindrical furnaces are in the lower part of the boile ...

s capable of producing 1707HP, powering a single screw. The hull was reinforced with steel and iron strapping, and was the largest wooden "steam barge" ever built in Cleveland, approaching the practical size limit for a wooden vessel of its type. The ship cost $125,999 to build, and was launched on August 28, 1880. The ship was built for Alva Bradley of Cleveland, and named for Henry Chisholm, father of the steel industry in that city. It was used on the

from the time it was built until 1898, and frequently set records for cargo capacity, often towing several barges at once.

The wreck of the ''Chisholm''

The ''Chisholm'' left

Duluth, Minnesota , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

on October 16, 1898 bound for

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 Sou ...

, carrying 92,000 bushels of barley and towing the 220-foot schooner ''John Martin''. The next day a heavy storm blew in and the tow rope to the ''Martin'' was cast off. After the gale lessened, the ''Chisholm'' spent the next few days searching for the ''Martin''. On October 20, 1898 the ship struck a reef near the

Rock of Ages Light The Rock of Ages Light is a U.S. Coast Guard lighthouse on a small rock outcropping () approximately west of Washington Island and west of Isle Royale, in Eagle Harbor Township, Keweenaw County, Michigan (''see map below''). It is an active ...

while attempting to enter Washington Harbor. Determining the hull was too badly damaged to refloat, the captain abandoned ship, sending several crewmembers to Victoria Harbor for assistance while taking the remainder of the crew into Washington Harbor. The ''Martin'' was later found, essentially unharmed and sailing under her own power. Salvage began almost immediately, but the ship broke up and sank during storms a week later. The Scotch boilers were salvaged in 1901, but by that time the engine had slid downhill away from the wreck. The ''Chisholm'' sat mostly undisturbed until she was rediscovered by sport divers in the 1960s.

The wreck today

The ''Henry Chisholm'' sits in waters of 80 to 150 feet, lying on its side. Portions of the wooden hull are intermingled with the wreckage of the '' Cumberland'', which had sunk earlier in 1877. The stern of the ship is broken away from the rest of the wreckage, and sits some distance away. The steam engine, drive shaft and prop are intact in the stern section, sitting upright at the 120–150 foot depth. The steam engine is of the double expansion variety, 20 feet high, and is in nearly perfect condition, easily viewable and accessible through the sheared-off stern. Approximately 75 dives were made to the ''Chisholm'' in 2009 out of 1062 dives made to wrecks in the

Isle Royale National Park Isle Royale National Park is an American national park consisting of Isle Royale – known as Minong to the native Ojibwe – along with more than 400 small adjacent islands and the surrounding waters of Lake Superior, in the state of Michigan ...

History

The wreck of the ''Chisholm''

The wreck today

References

Further reading