MINNESOTA, USA — A pair of discoveries hundreds of feet below the surface of Lake Superior are helping to unravel a mystery that has puzzled shipwreck historians for more than a century.
"It sends shivers up your spine to help put together a mystery like that," said Corey Adkins, with the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS). "These ships haven't been seen in 109 years."
On November 18th, 1914, the Steamship C.F. Curtis disappeared while towing two wooden schooners, the Selden E. Marvin and Annie M. Peterson. The ships left Baraga, Michigan to deliver lumber to New York, but they encountered a brutal storm somewhere near Grand Marais, Michigan.
None of the 28 crew members survived.
"Quite a few (crew members) were washed upon the beach," Adkins said. "News reports at the time said two men from the Curtis made it two shore but died while trying to crawl their way back to Grand Marais. The closest site to salvation that they had was Grand Marais and the storm was so bad that the lifesaving station that night, they didn't see them."
Because of those grizzly discoveries on shore, the ships were always believed to be near that area. Then, in 2021, the GLSHS discovered a shipwreck roughly 20 miles north of Grand Marais thanks to a sonar device. They then sent a Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle (ROV) 500 feet beneath the surface and discovered the Curtis.
A year later they returned to the area.
"The second time we went out there we got a blip on another ship that is only three or four miles from the Curtis," he said. "When we put the ROV down on that, it just happened to be the Marvin."
The thrill of the discovery beneath the surface was only possible thanks to years of painstaking work on the surface, pulling sonar equipment in a 40-mile grid to help better understand the secrets hidden below.
"It's like a 40-mile-long walleye trawl," Adkins said with a laugh. "It's a lot of boredom out there when you're hunting for shipwrecks with little spurts of complete joy."
Now, the team has its sights set on finding the last of the missing ships, in hopes of unlocking answers that have remained unanswered for more than a century.
"This summer we will be searching for the Peterson aggressively," he said. "But now we know, now we can release this to the public and maybe there are some families members out there that now know where their (loved ones) are."
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