From the Chicago Sun Times,
A group that documents shipwrecks said it has found the wreck of a 60 foot, single-masted sloop in Lake Michigan that may date to the 1830's while looking for remnants of a 1950 plane crash.
The wreck was found off southwestern Michigan in water about 250' deep between Saugatuck and South Haven, Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates announced recently. The discovery was made while working with author Clive Cussler and his sonar operator Ralph Wilbanks.
The group was searching for the remnants of Northwest Airlines Flight 2501, which crashed into the lake 61 years ago, killing 58 people.
"Sometimes, when you're looking for one thing, you come across another," Shipwreck researcher Craig Rich said of the discovery.
The vessel sits upright and is in relatively good condition, the research group said. The sloop's construction and design are consistent with ships built in the 1820s and 1830s.
"It's fascinating stuff," said Cussler, who has worked with the researchers to locate other wrecks. "It's not the Titanic or anything like that. But it is rather historic just for the era in which it sank."
The ship likely was moving goods across the lake when it went down, Rich said. The group hopes to identify the ship by the summer and begin researching its story, he added.
"If we can put a name on it, we'll figure out what the story is and, if not, it'll be a mystery wreck," Rich said.
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