Ship that sank more than 150 years ago in Lake Superior discovered along the Shipwreck Coast

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.

"I was more excited about it because at first I thought it was totally in pieces at the bottom," said Darryl Ertel Jr., director of marine operations at the Shipwreck Society, in a news release.

There were also 10 shovels sticking up out of the mud around the Nucleus, a reminder of a time before modern shipping technology.

"They didn't have a ship unloader," Adkins said. "They did it with those shovels and wheelbarrows. They had to put it in the cargo hold themselves."

The Nucleus got caught in a storm on Sept. 14, 1869, and developed a leak. The crew of seven to 12 men including Capt. Moore — there is no record of his first name — made it into lifeboats. They were on Lake Superior for hours before they encountered the SS Union and waved a gas lamp to get the crew's attention.

The captain of that ship pulled up alongside them — then continued on without stopping.

The crew members were eventually picked up by the schooner Worthington and brought safely to Sault Ste. Marie. Word of the SS Union captain's bad behavior made news.

Adkins, quoting from an old newspaper article, read: "We should wait anxiously for a statement from the captain of the Union in regard to this apparently inhumane neglect."