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On Friday, researchers revealed the discovery of a luxurious steamer shipwreck that met its watery fate in Lake Michigan back in 1872.
This announcement came from Shipwreck World, an organization dedicated to uncovering sunken ships worldwide. They credited the find to a team led by veteran shipwreck hunter Paul Ehorn from Illinois. At the age of 80, Ehorn shared that his team located the wreck of the Lac La Belle approximately 20 miles offshore, nestled between Racine and Kenosha, Wisconsin, in October 2022.
The unveiling was postponed as the team intended to accompany it with a three-dimensional video of the wreck. Unfortunately, adverse weather delayed their access until the past summer.
Ehorn expressed to The Associated Press that he has been on the trail of the Lac La Belle’s resting place since 1965.
Meanwhile, sailboats glided across Lake Michigan as a rare blue supermoon illuminated the Chicago skyline on August 30, 2023. (Getty)
“It’s kind of a game, like solve the puzzle. Sometimes you don’t have many pieces to put the puzzle together but this one worked out and we found it right away,” he said. The finding left him “super elated.”
Ehorn said he was able to narrow down his search thanks to a clue from wreck hunter and author Ross Richardson. Ehorn declined to say what the clue was, but Richardson told The Associated Press that he had heard of a local fisherman who pulled up an item specific to a steam ship in a “certain location.”
According to an account on Shipwreck World, the Lac La Belle was built in 1864, in Cleveland, Ohio. The massive 217-foot (66-meter) steamer ran between Cleveland and Lake Superior but sank in the St. Clair River in 1866 after a collision. The ship was raised in 1869 and reconditioned.
The ship’s final trip began when it left Milwaukee for Grand Haven, Michigan, in a gale on the night of Oct, 13, 1872, with 53 passengers and crew and a cargo of barley, pork, flour and whiskey. About two hours into the trip, the ship began to leak uncontrollably.
The wreck of the Lac La Belle was found off the coast of Wisconsin. (iStock)
The captain turned the Lac La Belle back to Milwaukee, but waves came crashing over the vessel, extinguishing its boilers. The captain ultimately ordered lifeboats lowered and the ship went down stern first.