A 112-year-old large wooden ship found buried in Lake Michigan

Milwaukee - A large wooden steamship that sank over a century ago during a violent Lake Michigan storm has been found perfectly preserved off the Milwaukee-area shoreline.

The Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association knew that the ship was down in the water, but it wasn't until today that it was actually discovered. The Associated Press reports that the President of the Association, Brendon Baillod says the find of the L.R. Doty was important for them because it was the largest wooden ship that remained unaccounted for. Baillod, who has taken part in several other sunken ship discoveries, was thrilled.

"It's the biggest one I've been involved with. It was really exhilarating."

The 300-foot Doty was carrying a cargo of corn from South Chicago to Ontario, Canada in October of 1898 when it was hit by a terrible storm. Along with snow and sleet, heavy winds whipped up waves of up to 30 feet. Baillod says the Doty could have handled the weather since it was only five years old, and its hull was reinforced with steel arches. But it was towing a small schooner, the Olive Jeanette, which began to founder in the storm after the tow line apparently snapped. It is believed the Doty sank after it went to the schooner's rescue. All 17 crew members died, along with the ship's cats, Dewey and Watson. Baillod who is a maritime historian has spent more than 20 years researching this very shipwreck. He knew that debris had washed up soon after it sunk in Kenosha, about 40 miles south of Milwaukee. But then he found news accounts that it had last been seen closer to Milwaukee, near Oak Creek. And then in 1991, a Milwaukee fisherman reported that he had snagged his nets on something big that was about 300 feet under the water. But the report was basically forgotten, until diving technology improved enough for divers to explore at that depth. A number of divers did some preliminary scouting on the lake's surface in recent months, using deep-sea technology and they did find a massive submerged object. But the divers waited until last week to descend, when the weather was just right. Jitka Hanakova, 33, a diver and captain of the charter boat that led the discovery says

"It felt so good to solve this. This ship has been missing for so many years and it's one of the biggest out there."

Amazingly divers found the ship standing up straight and intact, settled into the clay at the lake's bottom. Even the ship's cargo of corn was still in its hold. The cold freshwater waters of Lake Michigan managed to preserve the ship. It was also deep enough so that current storms wouldn't affect it. Baillod says he's betting that the corpses of the crew are likely to be intact as well. He says the bodies can probably be found in the ship's boiler room, where the sailors must have huddled as the ship sank. Right now, there aren't any plans to raise the Doty. It now belongs to the state of Wisconsin. Baillod says if the ship remains in the water, it will stay as it is, while exposing it to air will cause it to rot away in a few years. Baillod estimates that thousands of ships are still submerged in the Great Lakes. Lake Michigan has about 500 dive-worthy ships still to be found. He says his next target is the largest known missing ship: the car ferry Pere Marquette 18. He said it went down in 1910, about 20 miles from the southeastern Wisconsin shore. Baillod says he likes his work

"What's nice about finding these ships is, it contributes to our cultural history. Many people are disconnected from history so it's nice to reconnect to our past — to maybe look out today and think of the wooden steamships that were out there 100 years ago."