WHITEFISH POINT, Mich.(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Shipwreck hunters have located a merchant ship that sank in Lake Superior in 1940.
The shipwreck happened during the storm off Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The wreck took its captain with him. Now according to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, the discovery of the 244 -foot bulk carrier Arlington was found in over 600 feet of water around 35 miles north of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula.
The Arlington left Port Arthur, Ontario on April 30, 1940 en route to Owen Sound, Ontario under the command of Captain Frederick Burke known to be a veteran of the Great Lakes.
Dense fog greeted the Arlington and a larger freighter, the Collingwood, as they made their way across Lake Superior. As the day turned to night the fog turned into a storm and battered both ships. The crew abandoned ship without orders from Burke.
All survived except for Burke. It's still not know why Burke did not abandon ship with the crew. Reports indicate that he was near the pilothouse of his ship and waved at the Collingwood minutes before his ship went to the bottom of Lake Superior, the Historical Society said.
Shipwreck researcher Dan Fountain has been conducting remote sensing in Lake Superior in search of shipwrecks for about a decade.
“It’s exciting to solve just one more of Lake Superior’s many mysteries,” he said. “Finding Arlington so far out in the lake- I hope this final chapter in her story can provide some measure of closure to the family of Captain Burke.”
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