Ship found at the bottom of Lake Superior more than 100 years after it went missing

DULUTH – The Adella Shores, loaded with salt and on its way to Duluth in May 1909, was nearly a week late when crews from other vessels came into the port with tales of the floating debris encountered near Whitefish Point, Mich.

The captain and mate of the steamer the Simon Langell reported seeing up to 100 small bits of decking, planks, part of a skylight and a large piece above water level — which made it possible to identify the wreck.

“That’s the Adella Shores, I know her well,” Capt. Geel said, according to an account in the Duluth Herald.

Adella Shores has for more than a century been described as a ship that “went missing,” a specific term for vessels that leave dock and are never seen again. That distinction will change. A crew from the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society found her about 40 miles northwest of Whitefish Point, resting 650 feet below the surface of Lake Superior. The group announced its find Wednesday morning, on the 115th anniversary of its sinking.

Darryl Ertel, the historical society’s director of marine operations, and his brother Dan Ertel found the vessel while out running grids, a technique of working a detailed back-and-forth scan of a specific spot, with a sonar system. Its identity was no surprise.

“I pretty much knew that it had to be the Adella Shores when I measured the length of it, because there were no other ships out there missing in that size range,” he said in a news release.

He sent down a remotely operated vehicle and was able to match the design to that of the missing Adella Shores.

The wreck was discovered in 2021, but the historical society spends time researching found vessels before going public with information about its discoveries.

“Each one of the stories is important and deserves to be told with the utmost honor and respect,” said Corey Adkins, the society’s communications director.

A video of the find shows parts of the ship, and a common kitchen item, at rest on the floor of Lake Superior — the cabin wall, the boiler, the cargo winch and a dish.

Adella Shores, at 195 feet long and 735 tons, was built in Gibraltar, Mich., in 1894. It sank twice in shallow waters over the course of 15 years, but lived to float again.

Then it went down for good. This might have been the Shores’ own self-imposed curse: According to the vessel’s lore, the owners, who named the boat for one of their daughters, were opposed to alcohol consumption and instead of using wine or Champagne, christened the new ship with a bottle of water.

This is believed to be bad luck.

At the time of the wreck, Adella Shores was following the Daniel J. Morrell through a thick ice, according to the historical society. The doomed vessel had fallen 2 miles behind and out of view of the larger steel steamship. When the lead vessel rounded into Whitefish Point, it was hit by a northeast gale.

And Adella Shores disappeared. Fourteen crew members were lost to the lake.

The captain of the Morrell said he thought Adella Shores hit an ice floe, which punctured the hull and sank the ship.

The New York Times reported that winds had reached 70 miles per hour, and for three days there was a violent snowstorm on this part of Lake Superior, which proved devastating to at least three other vessels. The George Nester, a 206-foot wooden barge in the tow of another vessel, the Schoolcraft, got caught up on a reef near Huron Islands and went down with all seven crew members still on board.

Those aboard the Schoolcraft made several attempts to save the crew, until the line between them was finally severed. They witnessed the final sights and sounds of the sinking vessel, and the men who launched themselves into the “foamy waters” — a last shot at safety.

“The Nester rode up on the crest of a mountainous wave and then drifted to leeward to be ground to pieces on the cruel rocks of the southern coast of the Huron Islands,” according to an account in the Yale (Mich.) Expositor.

The 231-foot iron-hulled propeller vessel Russia, carrying cement, foundered, but everyone in the crew of 22 made it to safety. Likewise, the bulk barge Aurania went down near Whitefish Point, but no lives were lost.