PARADISE, MI (WHTC-AM/FM, Feb. 13, 2024) – Researchers have located the shipwreck of the bulk carrier Arlington in Lake Superior, about 35 miles north of the Keweenaw Peninsula.
The Arlington went down in a storm in 1940, taking the life of the ship’s captain, Frederick Burke, as he refused to abandon the ship. The crew all survived and were rescued by the Collingwood, which was nearby. The 244-foot Arlington started taking on water in the storm on April 30th, 1940 and chief engineer Fred Gilbert sounded the alarm at 4:20 AM on May 1st that the ship was sinking and they needed to evacuate.
On Monday, Dan Fountain of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, who has spent the past decade on this case, announced that, through remote sensing data and a Marine Sonic Technology side-scan sonar, divers identified the remains of the Arlington last year.
Fountain is slated to say more on this discovery and the story of the Arlington itself when he is among the speakers for the Holland-based Michigan Shipwreck Research Association‘s annual “Histories and Mysteries Beneath the Inland Seas” fundraiser on Saturday, March 23rd at the Knickerbocker Theatre in downtown Holland.
-Michael Arney contributed to this story
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