DULUTH — Researchers have uncovered the remains of a bulk freighter that sank after it was gouged by a ship nearly twice its size a century ago — on a night when Lake Superior was blanketed with dense fog and smoke from northern forest fires.
The port side bow of the Cetus rammed into the port side of the Huronton, creating a 25-foot gash and quickly dropping the vessel into the depths of Lake Superior on Oct. 11, 1923. It lay there undisturbed until recently.
Researchers from the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society this past August saw a sliver, seemingly the size of a thread, caught in an 800-foot deep hole near Whitefish Point on the east end of Lake Superior — just 3 miles from where the Edmund Fitzgerald was found.
The group, which likes to publicly share their discoveries on the anniversary of a wreck, announced the find Wednesday, exactly a century later.
They quickly found the massive break in the steamer as they circled the vessel with underwater cameras.
"Collision," said Darryl Ertel, the historical society's director of marine operations, as he brought the remote operated vehicle [ROV] up on the point where the ship broke in half. "It's a big tear in the side."
Ertel, whose footage is recorded, moved the ROV the length of the ship, cruising past the bow cabins and the broken mast, and finding an anchor buried in the ground. Here and there, aquatic life had taken over.
"The rusted relics like this, you never see the name," he is heard saying in a video of the search. The name is never visible in the video, but bits of black paint that might have once identified the vessel remain.