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120-year-old Ironton marks 100th shipwreck found in Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary

Courtesy Photo The newly found shipwreck Ironton rests hundreds of feet below the surface with its three masts standing and rigging attached, remarkably preserved by the cold freshwater of Lake Huron. An anchor rests still attached on the bow of the sunken schooner barge. This photo was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Undersea Vehicles Program at University of North Carolina Wilmington.

ALPENA — A more than 120-year-old shipwreck has been discovered intact on the bottom of Lake Huron in the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, marking the 100th found shipwreck of an estimated 200 in the sanctuary.

The sanctuary announced on Wednesday morning that the 191-foot sailing ship Ironton, which sank in 1894, was discovered in late spring 2019.

“The discovery illustrates how we can use the past to create a better future,” said Jeff Gray, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary superintendent. “Using this cutting-edge technology, we have not only located a pristine shipwreck lost for over a century, we are also learning more about one of our nation’s most important natural resources — the Great Lakes. This research will help protect Lake Huron and its rich history.”

The announcement was postponed until now to allow for proper research and mapping of the shipwreck prior to opening the area to divers. The exact coordinates of the shipwreck have not been released yet, but Gray said it is near Presque Isle.

Eventually, a mooring buoy will be placed at the site like the ones marking other shipwrecks in the sanctuary.

Courtesy Photo Deploying a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) equipped with high resolution cameras, team members document shipwrecks hundreds of feet beneath the surface of Lake Huron. Pictured from left are Dwight Coleman, Ocean Exploration Trust expedition leader, and Jason White, operations field manager with UNC’s Undersea Vehicles Pro- gram in this photo provided by the Ocean Exploration Trust/NOAA Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

“We want to provide people access to these sites, but make sure when they’re visiting it they can do it in a way that they can be protected, so that future generations can enjoy them the way we do today,” Gray said.

He explained the process of finding the underwater treasure that is a shipwreck.

“With shipwreck hunting, people are out exploring, looking for shipwrecks, and they’re using some type of sonar,” Gray explained. “When we’re doing it, we’re also mapping the bottom, so the data we’re collecting will result in finding a shipwreck, but also better understanding Lake Huron. So, we’re collecting scientific data on the bottom type, fish habitat, invasive species, the sinkholes, all kinds of things that can be used by scientists to help protect Lake Huron.”

He said the process of searching for a wreck on the bottom of the lake involves running a remotely operated vessel, or ROV, back and forth along the lakebed.

“We call it mowing the lawn,” he said. “You do little slices of mapping to map that bottom, and, when something pops up on that sonar that looks unnatural, that’s what we’re looking for.”

Courtesy Photo Members from the June 2021 expedition team pose on board the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mobile Bay; the remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) sits ready for deployment on deck in this photo provided by the Ocean Exploration Trust/NOAA Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

What they found is a well-preserved, over 120-year-old ship, with all three masts fully intact and still standing.

“It’s outrageously exciting,” Gray said. “I wasn’t on the boat the day they found it, but I got the image, and everybody was just absolutely thrilled.”

He said that, with the sonar images, they can determine the approximate height and length of the vessel. Then they check the historical records to find out which ships were lost in the area that match that description.

When the divers went down to explore the wreck in fall 2019, that was exciting “because it was the first time anyone has seen this thing for over 100 years,” Gray said. “It’s remarkably preserved by the cold freshwater of Lake Huron. It could be one of the best-preserved shipwrecks throughout all of the Great Lakes.”

Gray said that progress halted during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, but that, in 2021, they went back to the site and completed more detailed exploration and documentation of the Ironton.

Courtesy Photo The schooner-barge Ironton sits on the lake floor today. This image is a point cloud extracted from water column returns from multibeam sonar in this image pro- vided by Ocean Exploration Trust/NOAA Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

He explained that a lot of people deserve credit for this discovery.

“This is truly a collaborative effort,” Gray said. “There’s Dr. Robert Ballard from Ocean Exploration Trust. His team was part of this. We had a team from the University of New Hampshire with Val Schmidt for the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping. Research compounds on itself, so all the research people have done over the years ultimately helped us find this. It builds on itself. It was a team effort.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the state jointly manage Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The Ironton project was made possible with the support of Ocean Exploration Trust and with technologies from the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping, the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, the University of North Carolina’s Undersea Vehicle Program, and the Great Lakes Water Studies Institute at Northwestern Michigan College. The documentation of the shipwreck Ironton would not have been possible without the dedication of the U.S. Coast Guard.

“This is making national and international news, and it’s exciting for us that it helps shine a light on Northeast Michigan, and will help people realize the sanctuary is here, and, hopefully, that will draw visitors in … and really contribute to the tourism and economic impact that the sanctuary is having, so it’s a great opportunity,” Gray said. “These are some of the top, top people in the world that do this type of work. Dr. Ballard has worked in every corner of the globe, and he’s been coming here since 2000, doing research here, and it’s just a reminder to all of us how significant our own back yard is. It’s really attracting world-class technology and world-class scientists that come here and do exploration of these amazing resources.”

Gray said about five shipwrecks have been discovered in the last decade. The last one, the Ohio, discovered in 2017, has a strong connection to the Ironton.

Courtesy Photo The 50- foot research vessel Storm is operated by NOAA’s Great Lakes Environ- mental Research Laboratory and is dedicated to sup- porting activities of Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in this photo provided by NOAA TBNMS/ GLERL.

“In 2017, we discovered the ship the Ironton collided with — the Ohio,” said Stephanie Gandulla, resource protection coordinator for Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Built in 1873, the Ironton was a towed barge schooner used by the Niagara River Transportation Co. to move wheat, coal, corn, lumber, and iron ore across the Great Lakes. In September 1894, Ironton sank in a collision in which five of the ship’s crew perished. Two survived — William Wooley, of Cleveland, Ohio, and William Parry, of East China, Michigan.

“By the time Ironton’s crew spotted the approaching Ohio through the darkness, it was too late — a head-on collision with the steamer was unavoidable,” a press release from Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary noted. “In an interview published by the Duluth News Tribune the following day, William Wooley of Cleveland, Ohio, a surviving crew member of Ironton, recounted his experience.”

“At this time we sighted a steamer on our starboard bow. She came up across our bow and we struck her on the quarter about aft of the boiler house. A light was lowered over our bow and we saw a hole in our port bow and our stem splintered,” Wooley told the Duluth News Tribune for a Sept. 27, 1894 story.

“Then the Ironton sank, taking the yawl with her,” Parry told the News Tribune. “As the painter was not untied, I sank underwater, and when I came up grabbed a sailor’s bag. Wooley was a short distance from me on a box. I swam to where he was.”

Autonomous surface vessel (ASV) BEN floats in the Rogers City Marina in this News File Photo.

In 2017, officials from the sanctuary and a group of partners led an expedition to survey 100 square miles of unmapped lakebed within the sanctuary. They discovered the bulk carrier Ohio in 300 feet of water, but the Ironton was yet to be found.

Then, in 2019, sanctuary researchers set out on a mapping expedition in Lake Huron with Ocean Exploration Trust, the undersea exploration and education organization founded by Ballard. Ocean Exploration Trust brought a team of world-renowned hydrographers and the latest in underwater mapping technology to Michigan, including an autonomous surface vehicle named BEN (Bathymetric Explorer and Navigator).

“Our team is proud to partner with the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries to bring innovative technology and expedition expertise to map the Great Lakes,” Ballard said in a press release. “Ironton is yet another piece of the puzzle of Alpena’s fascinating place in America’s history of trade and Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary continues to reveal lost chapters of maritime history. We look forward to continuing to explore sanctuaries and with our partners reveal the history found in the underwater world to inspire future generations.”

The discovery of the Ironton may help answer century-old questions surrounding the ship’s final hours. Sandra Clark, director of the Michigan History Center and co-manager of Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, explained the importance of historical shipwreck discoveries such as Ironton.

“Discoveries like this are fascinating because they connect people to Michigan’s long history of maritime innovation and commerce,” Clark said in a press release. “The more we discover, the more we understand the lives of the men and women who worked the Great Lakes.”

For more detailed information, visit sanctuaries.noaa.gov/news/mar23/ironton-discovery.

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