Alpena, Michigan, United States

Montana

The Montana was a 72-metre wooden bulk freighter built in 1872 in Port Huron, Michigan. On the morning of 6 September 1914, while loaded with coal and downbound from Port Huron, fire broke out in her hold and the crew abandoned ship as the wooden hull burned to the waterline. She sank in Thunder Bay roughly nine nautical miles east of Alpena. The wreck now sits upright on a hard clay bottom in 18 to 23 metres of water inside the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Although the upper works and decking burned away, the entire lower hull, engine, boiler, propeller, rudder and stern arch are intact and reachable. The Montana is one of the most-dived wrecks in the sanctuary because the depth is single-tank-friendly, the structure is large and recognisable, and visibility in late summer is often 15 to 25 metres in the cold lake water. Currents are usually weak. Dry suit and intermediate certification recommended.