Whitefish Point, Michigan, United States

Vienna

The Vienna was a 58-metre wooden bulk freighter built in 1873 in Cleveland that sank on 17 September 1892 after colliding with the steamer Nipigon off Whitefish Point in eastern Lake Superior. Whitefish Point is the graveyard of more than 200 ships, including the famous Edmund Fitzgerald, and is now a Michigan Underwater Preserve. The Vienna lies upright and remarkably intact on a flat clay bottom at 44 metres, with masts still in place, the rudder swung over and her steam engine and boiler at the stern fully exposed. The cold fresh water of Lake Superior preserves wood almost indefinitely; brass fittings and deadeyes look as though installed yesterday. Visibility in late summer is regularly 15 to 25 metres but water temperature stays just above 4 C even in August at depth. Dry suit and advanced or technical certification with redundancy are required, and the site is weather-dependent: Lake Superior storms close access for weeks.