Alpena, Michigan, United States

Cornelia B. Windiate

The Cornelia B. Windiate is a 41-metre three-masted schooner built in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in 1874. On her first commercial winter run from Milwaukee to Buffalo with a cargo of wheat in November 1875, she vanished with all nine hands. She was presumed lost in Lake Michigan, but in 1986 her wreck was discovered upright and almost completely intact at the bottom of Lake Huron inside what is now the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, with all three masts still standing and rigging in place. The cold dark fresh water of the deep Great Lakes had preserved the ship as a time capsule. The wreck rests at 56 metres on a flat clay bottom and is one of the most photogenic deep wrecks anywhere. The yawl boat is even still on its davits at the stern. Visibility is reliably 18 to 30 metres but water is below 5 C; the dive demands trimix or hypoxic-trained advanced divers, dry suits and full redundancy.