Thaindian News

June 25 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Over a century again in the cold waters of Lake Michigan, a wooden steamship went down during a violent storm. It lay on the bottom of the lake undisturbed by humans, inhabited by plant and animal life for 112 years, until it was recently found by divers, that is.

The 300 foot long LR Doty was the largest wooden ship that remained lost, which makes this a very important find., according to Brendon Baillod, who is the president of the Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association. Baillod has been a part of around a dozen ship recoveries, and said, “It’s the biggest one I’ve been involved with, IIt was really exhilarating.” Laying off of the shoreline in the Milwaukee area, the divers said that the cold waters of Lake Michigan had kept the ship intact.

It was said that the Doty should have been able to handle the horrible storm which it went down in. The ship was carrying a cargo full of corn from the south of Chicago to Ontario, Canada when it sailed into the storm of rain, sleet, snow, and terrible winds, which reached up to 30 feet according to reports.

Since the ship was only 5 years old, and had a hull which was reinforced with steel arches, the storm should have been no problem. It is believed that the Doty came to the aide of a small towing schooner, which it was pulling. The Olive Jeanette was having problems and could not handle the storm. It is most likely that the Doty went down as she was coming to the aide of the smaller boat. All 17 crew members and the two cats onboard the ship, Dewey and Watson, were lost at sea.

And now , after all these years, the ship has been found still upright and intact, with some of it’s cargo still in the hold. There are no plans to raise the Doty, but she will be kept preserved where she rests. Jitka Hanakova, 33, who is the captain of the charter boat that led the exploration stated, “It felt so good to solve this. This ship has been missing for so many years and it’s one of the biggest out there.”