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Explorers have discovered a very old shipwreck in Lake Superior.
The remains of the Nucleus were found 600 feet beneath the surface, around 40 miles northwest of Vermilion Point, which is about 10 miles east of Whitefish Point.
The Nucleus led a troubled life – it had sunk and been reclaimed twice previously, and had also rammed and sunk the side-wheeler S.S. Detroit in Lake Huron 15 years earlier.
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society says the 144-foot barquentine sank September 14th, 1869, after taking on water while downbound from Marquette carrying a load of iron ore in a storm. The crew escaped in a lifeboat, were bypassed by one ship, then picked up by another.
A barquentine is a type of three-masted schooner.
The Shipwreck Society discovered the Nucleus using a Marine Sonic Technology side-scan sonar in the summer of 2021, and positively identified the wreck last year using the organization’s remotely operated vehicle.
