Mysterious Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes

[Music] hello everybody welcome back to side projects i am your host simon and in this video unbelievable shipwrecks at the great lakes let's just jump in located in the east central portion of north america between the united states and canada the great lakes were created more than 14 000 years ago when retreating ice sheets left massive gorges in the earth that gradually filled with water as temperatures rose together lake superior michigan huron ontario and erie cover nearly a hundred thousand square miles and have a combined volume of more than 5 000 cubic miles enough to cover the continents in nearly 18 inches of water at more than 30 000 square miles lake superior alone is nearly three times larger than belgium the lakes have been important maritime trade routes for centuries and estimates claim they're littered with the remains of more than five thousand shipwrecks all told nearly 30 000 sailors lost their lives and though most ship disappearances are relatively mundane affairs others resulted in hundreds of deaths and remain shrouded in mystery even at 250 feet long and 40 feet wide with a gross weight in excess of 2000 tons ss kemp loops wasn't big by early 20th century shipping standards the canal was designed to fit through narrow locks and though it spent its short life hauling freight on the great lakes it was built more than 3 000 miles away in northeast england fitted with two masts and a powerful 1 000 horsepower steam engine the fresh water vessel crossed the atlantic without incident on her maiden voyage in 1924. the kamloops plied her tray diligently for the next few years but by late 1927 the great lakes were experiencing their second consecutive year of especially harsh weather in 1926 she'd spent much of the winter frozen fast in the mary's river but despite dire weather forecasts the ship's owners urged the captain to make the most of what little time was left before the freeze-out the ship's crew began loading heavy machinery food and shoes over multiple days in late november of 27 and the vessel steamed through sault ste marie canal onto lake superior in early december just as a massive storm swept in the kamloops took temporary refuge in whitefish bay during which time captain william bryan wrote a letter to his wife in toronto stating that the situation was bleak accompanied by a large bulk freighter called kudak the count loops made slow progress eventually becoming covered in thick ice that pushed her dangerously low in the water then on december 6 in frigid windy and wavy conditions she was last seen slipping under the waves near the our royale though the sinking itself isn't particularly mysterious what happened afterwards made the kamploops a great lakes legend by the 12th century the ship was officially declared missing and although search parties were dispatched no wreckage or survivors were found but months later during the spring thor remains of crew members were discovered by fishermen on isle royale apparently nine had survived and made their way by lifeboat to the island where they died of exposure and starvation huddled around a small fire pit even more shocking some had been partially devoured by wolves five decades later when the kabloops was found astonished divers discovered that the perpetually icy water preserved the ship and cargo in near pristine condition due to low visibility and strong currents the wreck site was off limits to all of the most experienced divers many of whom surfaced with blood-curdling tails of mummified bodies and lingering ghosts some claimed to have seen the apparition of an elderly man reclining in a bunk while others said he wandered the ship's deck casually as if carrying out his daily duties the reality was nobody saw anything real according to legends more than a year after the sinking a bottle containing a letter from a young female stewardess who survived the wreck was found floating in the nearby agawa river it stated that she was the lost survivor and wanted her parents to know her fate [Music] while some shipwrecks are eerie and enigmatic others are more notable for the sheer loss of life fewer still for the unbelievable circumstances in which they sank the ss eastland falls squarely into the last two categories and though it's far from a household name the catastrophe was responsible for more deaths than the titanic the ship sank in the chicago river in 1915 and more than a century later it's still the great lakes worst maritime disaster but ironically the ill-fated vessel never made it away from the dock prior to that fateful day the eastland was known as the speed queen of the great lakes her triple expansion steam engines cranked out nearly 2 000 horsepower enough to propel the 2 000 ton 260 plus foot ship to more than 20 miles an hour she entered service in 1903 but quickly racked up a spotty record that included collisions listing incidents and mutiny over the next dozen years the easton was bought and sold repeatedly due to chronic instability issues yet on the morning of july the 24th she and four other steamers waited to take local electric company employees and their families from chicago to a picnic in michigan city indiana just 40 miles across lake michigan despite her less than stellar history boarding began at 6 30 and in less than an hour the ship was packed with more than 2 500 revelers many were working-class immigrants clad in the heavy clothes and shoes popular at the time and before departure most headed to the upper deck to wave to friends and family who'd come to see them off recent maritime regulation instituted after the titanic tragedy mandated that passenger vessels be fitted with sufficient lifeboats and personal flotation devices for everyone on board but in a cruel twist of fate the added weight made the eastland more top-heavy and less seaworthy than she already was fearing the combined weight of passengers and safety equipment to push the keel into the river bottom the ships engineered jettisoned water from the ballast tanks causing the eastland to list though she briefly righted herself the vessel eventually tilted to 45 degrees before going all the way over on its port side just minutes later causing windows to shatter and water to flood into the lower decks and engine room passengers trapped inside were drowned and crushed by sliding furniture and though they weren't wearing life jackets and couldn't swim many on the upper deck panicked and leaped to certain death in the water below others scrambled to safety on the ship's starboard side while good samaritans jumped from the docks to help the drowning stunned onlookers claimed the screams were horrific and the murky water was a froth with the frantic arms and legs of terrified men women and children though a nearby tugboat rushed to the scene most who'd gone into the water were already dead later divers sent in to recover the bodies became so distressed at the scope and horror of the incident that many had to be sedated scores of corpses were taken to a local armory where family members could view and claim them and of the 844 who had perished all but one young boy were identified though lawsuits dragged on for years nobody was ever charged with wrongdoing or negligence when she was finally righted most thought the eastland was destined for the scrapyard but the us navy picked her up on the cheap and turned her into a training vessel on the great lakes during the first world war the keystone state was one of the largest vessels on the great lakes when she first took to the water in the 1840s she measured nearly 300 feet long and was powered by a revolutionary walking beam steam engine that turned a giant paddle wheel mounted midship featuring palatial suites leaded glass windows and carved mahogany fittings she was opulent too but by the late 1950s the keystone state's higher operating costs made her a losing proposition and the ship was mothballed until the beginning of the civil war when she was once again pressed into service as a freighter according to reports the conditions weren't particularly bad when she traveled to detroit in early november of 1861 to load cargo destined for milwaukee nonetheless a week later alarm bells sounded when her wheelhouse washed ashore off port austin in northern michigan lost ships weren't uncommon but rumors of secret missions and clandestine freight persisted the vessel's manifest listed as cargo as iron implements barrelled grain and farm equipment but some claim the document was fabricated to conceal its true cargo war material and gold bullion to finance the ongoing war against the confederacy either way for more than a century and a half a missing ship eluded searchers until it was finally discovered in july of 2013. using side scanning sonar a team of seasoned divers and shipwreck aficionados found the ship in 175 feet of water about 50 miles off the coast though the mystery of its location was solved numerous dives failed to answer the question of what it had been carrying in fact the hold was totally empty though it raised red flags it was apparently common for the crews of ships in peril to jettison cargo to improve buoyancy and handling it also is well known that side wheel steamers were notoriously difficult to manage in rough conditions especially when fully loaded if the ship was carrying gold and it had been thrown overboard during the sinking it could be spread over a large area far away from the wreck itself we'll probably never know what happened or what the ship was carrying but it is odd that the cargo just disappeared altogether and i really do hope that you found that video interesting if you did smash that like button below if you've got a suggestion for a future side projects video let me know in the comments below and as always thank you for watching

Channel: Sideprojects

Views: 345,146

Keywords: megaprojects, construction, engineering, projects

Id: wbL7NhYfkiI

Length: 8min 54sec (534 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 14 2020