DULUTH — Before the Nucleus began taking on water during a September 1869 storm on Lake Superior — and ultimately sank for the last time — the 144-foot barquentine had already been through a string of misadventures.
Fifteen years earlier, it rammed into the SS Detroit, bringing down the side-wheeler in Lake Huron. It had been beached, drifted from shore, and had already sunk twice before.
"There are nine accounts of accidents happening over its 21-year career on the Great Lakes," said Corey Adkins of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, adding that details on the ship's past are light because of its age.
He nicknamed it the "bad luck barquentine."
The Michigan-based shipwreck historians announced Wednesday that they discovered the Nucleus 600 feet deep in Lake Superior about 40 miles northwest of Vermilion Point. It is among the oldest ships these searchers have found along the Shipwreck Coast on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The Nucleus was first rediscovered in the summer of 2021 with Marine Sonic Technology.
The crew doubled back in 2022 with a remotely operated vehicle to identify it.
A video of the discovery shows debris from the ship — a stove, a bottle, the anchor, a bucket, dinner plates — along with, seemingly, iron ore from the shipment it was carrying from Marquette, Mich.
The stern and part of the port side were still intact.
