The steamer was one of the first all-steel vessels on the Great Lakes to carry mass amounts of cargo. Kind of like the Titanic, it was called one of the safest ships afloat.
Until it wasn’t.
Millionaire owner and Captain Peter Minch took the ship for a late summer cruise up through Lake Huron en route to Minnesota.
Folks on board enjoyed a pleasant ride till the weather turned sour in Whitefish Bay in Lake Superior.
They dropped anchor to wait out the stormy weather, when a gale hit the Western Reserve that night. The ship began to break apart.
The crew and passengers launched the vessel's lifeboat.
One was quickly overturned. Most of the crew disappeared.
The other lifeboat held other crew members with Captain Minch’s family onboard.
Within 10 minutes, the Western Reserve was beneath the waves of Lake Superior. The remaining lifeboat was in the gale all night.
By 7:30 a.m. the lifeboat was a mile from the shoreline near the Deer Park Life-Saving Station. But it overturned in the breakers.
Of the 28 initially aboard the Western Reserve, there was only one survivor — Wheelman Harry W. Stewart of Algonac, Mich.
Twenty-seven people died.
The discovery of the Western Reserve was announced Monday after efforts to confirm its identity.
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society used side scanning sonar aboard its research vessel. It used a remote operated vehicle to confirm the identity of the ship.
The shipwreck is 60 miles northwest of Whitefish Point in 600 feet of water, broken in two with the bow section resting on top of the stern. Find video of the shipwreck's discovery at the historical society's website.
