ALPENA – Thunder Bay has a rich history of hundreds of vessels resting at the bottom of the world’s fourth-largest freshwater lake. Most of the ships are freshwater vessels.

However, according to Wayne R. Lusardi, M.A., an Alpena-based State of Michigan Maritime Archaeologist, three known ocean freighters (salties – named for being ocean ships) have been claimed to Thunder Bay’s bottom. These vessels are the Nordmerer, Monrovia, and Viator.

The Nordmeer is the most current ship to sink, going down in 1966.

Built in 1904, the Norwegian motor ship, Viator, loaded with pickled herring and other fish products, was rammed on Oct. 31, 1935, by the freighter Ormindale in heavy fog northeast of Thunder Bay Island.

The 983-ton freighter lies 145 feet below Lake Huron’s surface. According to diving and sonar images of the Viator, the ship sits mostly upright. Boxes of pickled herring and fish products are still in the cargo holds.

This ship entered the Great Lakes prior to the formal 1959 opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway system.

Limited research documents did not offer insight into the crew’s size or fatalities.

On June 25, 1959, the Scottish-built 447-foot Monrovia, launched in 1943, was on a Lake Huron upbound route. The ocean vessel departed from Antwerp, Belgium to Chicago with a cargo of sheet and bar metal.

With a 29-member primarily non-English speaking crew, the vessel was in a thick lake fog. Downbound on Lake Huron was the 530-foot Canadian freighter, SS Royalton sailing from Duluth to Montreal with a load of grain.

As the ships approached each other, near Thunder Bay Island, foghorn alerts and radio communications were implemented. At 400 feet apart each shipmaster undertook a variety of evasive actions.

All efforts were too late, and the Royalton sliced into the Monrovia at 2 p.m.

Just after midnight on Nov. 26 the Monrovia sank and is was resting upright under 140 feet of Lake Huron water.

All of the Monrovia officers and crew were rescued by the steamer, Norman W. Foy and disembarked in Detroit.

A subsequent United States Coast Guard report cited both the Monrovia and Royalton as failing to adhere to the Lake Carriers Association and Dominion Corporation navigation rules and regulations. In addition, the Monrovia did not have radar, nor a lookout placed on the ship’s bow, and the officers and crew did not conduct any lifeboat drills.