Lost shipwreck resurfaces in Lake Michigan nearly 200 years after sinking
SAUGATUCK, MI – A West Michigan couple believes they’ve located a once lost shipwreck in the shallow waters of Lake Michigan.
Kevin Ailes and his wife, Amy, share a passion for preserving shipwrecks. “My main focus is preservation,” Ailes said. “But in the process of preservation we come across a lot of information which is quite intriguing to go find something.”
In the last decade, Kevin Ailes has located 4 shipwrecks once considered lost across the Great Lakes. He now has another wreck to add to the list.
Ailes began researching the wreck of the Milwaukie, a ship that went down in a fierce winter storm near Saugatuck in November of 1842. It’s one of the earliest known shipwrecks along the West Michigan lakeshore.
Using historical accounts of where the ship went down, Ailes used archive satellite imagery on Google Earth to scan the area of interest. Water conditions, sun angle, and several other factors at the time satellite imagery is captured plays a big role.
An archive satellite image from March 2021 revealed just what Ailes was looking for, just a few hundred feet from the shoreline. “I just couldn’t believe when I saw it there,” Ailes said. “You can even see the bow pointing not straight at shore, but about a 45 degree angle at shore.”
With a new point of interest to investigate, the couple first visited the site by boat during Spring 2022. Using a magnetometer and sonar on board, they verified what had been seen on the satellite scans. “Every one to two feet the detector would register a hit, and that matches up with the spikes which hold a ship together,” Ailes said.
Underwater images reveal what lies against the innermost sandbar along the Saugatuck Dunes State Park shoreline when waves and sand cooperate. “Clearly a keel, a little bit of ribs there,” Ailes said. “It’s definitely a shipwreck.”
The dimensions match up to the Milwaukie’s 113 foot length, he added.
While not much remains of the nearly 200-year-old vessel, the story behind its final resting place is quite the tale.
Read the rest of the story at this link: https://upnorthlive.com/news/local/shipwreck-boat-sinks-lake-michigan-saugatuck-milwaukie-divers-exploration-ailes-kevin?fbclid=IwAR1qlXQD39SzFi47jLrtI-GBfc-FAB2E9ToeBbeMuCdxDdF12ACXt-jPsKw
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