Shipwreck found at bottom of Lake Superior that sank in 1940

A shipwreck was recently discovered at the bottom of Lake Superior more than eight decades after the vessel sank with its captain — who mysteriously decided to stay aboard rather than escaping with his crew.

The 244-foot bulk carrier dubbed the Arlington was finally found about 35 miles north of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula after it descended more than 600 feet in 1940, officials announced this week.

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS) said it worked with shipwreck researcher Dan Fountain to locate the missing ship that was carrying wheat from Port Arthur in Ontario to Owen Sound in the same Canadian province.

Under the direction of seasoned Captain Frederick “Tatey Bug” Burke, the ship, along with another vessel, the Collingwood, ran into a bruising storm on April 30, 1940 that battered both ships, the historical society said.

While Arlington’s first mate called on the ship to reroute closer to the Canadian North Shore to provide cover from the wind and waves, Burke overruled him and demanded the ship stay on course across the open lake.

The following morning the ship’s chief engineer, Fred Gilbert, alerted the crew that the Arlington was beginning to sink, which sent crewmembers scrambling. Without orders from Burke, the crew abandoned the ship on their own, the historical society said.

But Burke stayed put – a decision that remains a mystery, the historical society stated.

He even reportedly waved to the Collingwood from the pilot house as he faced a watery grave, the organization said, citing news reports from that time.  

“She went down fast,” Gilbert, the engineer, said in a May 3, 1940 issue of the Toronto Daily Star, CNN reported. “We hardly had time to get the lifeboats out. The ship was covered in ice — I got my hands frozen shoving them over.”

There’s speculation Burke followed the high seas custom of a captain going down with his ship.

“I am not a bit surprised to hear that Capt. Burke went down with the ship,” George Mackery, whose father was first mate on the Arlington, said at the time, according to CNN.

“He was a real sailor type, rough and ready and never was the type who would desert a sinking ship. We sure will miss him around the ships.”

Fountain, the researcher, came to the historical society about a potential shipwreck last year. The historical society then brought a ship out on the lake and using a Marine Sonic Technology side-scan sonar pinpointed a submerged ship before divers positively identified it as the Arlington.

“These targets don’t always amount to anything…but this time it absolutely was a shipwreck. A wreck with an interesting, and perhaps mysterious story,” GLSHS executive director Bruce Lynn said in a statement.

“It’s exciting to solve just one more of Lake Superior’s many mysteries,” Fountain 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.”