Maritime historians from the Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association (WUAA) have located the remains of the schooner Margaret A. Muir at the bottom of Lake Michigan off Algoma, Wisconsin, as the result of a deliberate search. The team used historical records as well as a high-resolution side scanning sonar to locate the vessel, finding its remains on May 12, 2024.
Margaret A. Muir was a 130-foot (40-metre), three-masted schooner built at Manitowoc, Wisconsin in 1872 by the Hanson and Scove shipyard for Captain David Muir. It was intended primarily for the Great Lakes grain trade, although it carried many diverse cargoes, frequenting all five Great Lakes over a 21-year career.
The vessel sank as a result of bad weather at 08:00 local time on the morning of September 30, 1893 while bound from Bay City, Michigan to South Chicago, Illinois with a cargo of bulk salt. The crew of six survived the sinking, but the captain's dog and ship's mascot was lost.
Margaret A. Muir was lost to history until historian Brendon Baillod began compiling a database of Wisconsin’s missing ships around twenty years ago. In 2023, he approached the WUAA to undertake a search for the vessel, narrowing the search grid to about five square miles (13 square kilometres), using historical sources.
A team consisting of Baillod, Robert Jaeck, and Kevin Cullen eventually found in approximately 50 feet (15 metres) of water only a few miles off the Algoma Harbor entrance. The team then notified Wisconsin State Maritime Archeologist Tamara Thomsen of the find and within weeks, another team collected thousands of high-resolution images of the site.
The images were then used to create a 3D photogrammetry model of the wreck site, allowing people to explore the site virtually. The vessel is no longer intact, its sides having fallen outward after deck collapsed, but it still has all its deck gear, which includes two large anchors, hand pumps, a bow windlass, and a capstan.
The WUAA now plans to work with the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Maritime Archeology Program to nominate the site to the National Register of Historic Places. If accepted, it will join the schooner Trinidad, which the team located in deep water off Algoma in June of 2023.
