The Choctaw was a 1,500-ton steel “semi-whaleback” shipping vessel launched in 1892 by the Cleveland Ship Building Company in Ohio.
Only three of these were ever built. Whalebacks were unique at the time for their angled steel siding.
The Choctaw was captained by Charles A. Fox, with a 21-man crew.
Like other Great Lake vessels it experienced a myriad of mishaps. A year after it launched the engine exploded, killing two crew members. It ran aground in 1902 after it struck a rock at Marquette. It partially sank near the harbor.
But the vessel would find its final resting place in 1915, in Lake Huron just off Presque Isle. Battling some dense fog with a load of coal, the Chotcaw collided with the Canadian freighter Wahcondah. It sank within seven minutes.
Captain Fox and the crew were all rescued by the friendly Canadians.
About a century later researchers and the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary would discover the Chotcaw 300 feet down in Lake Huron.
It's dug into the clay at the bottom of the lake with its bow sticking up about 60 feet.
Thunder Bay's resource protection coordinator, Stephanie Gandulla, said captain Fox’s granddaughter reached out after its discovery.
“I call her Aunt Ruth, because the cousin who reached out to us, it was her aunt," Gandulla said. "She came and told us stories about how her grandfather, Captain Fox, would talk about how the the collision happened, was terrifying, and how thankful he was that everyone one was able to be rescued.”
