[rushie]

From the Seattle Post -

Michigan shipwreck group says it has found Hennipin

A group dedicated to finding and documenting shipwrecks in Michigans waters said Friday it found the well-preserved remains of the historic vessel Hennepin and two other ships at the bottom of Lake Michigan.

The 208-foot-long Hennepin was a steamer built in Milwaukee in 1888. It was later transformed into the Great Lakes first self-unloader, a cargo ship with an A-shaped crane and a series of conveyors that made it faster and easier to unload its contents.

The ship was being towed by a tugboat from Chicago to Grand Haven when it sank during a storm on Aug. 18, 1927. The captain and his 13-member survived by abandoning the vessel, which took about four hours to sink, for the safety of the tug.
Members of Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates, based in Holland, said they located the Hennepin upright in 230 feet of water off South Haven.

Co-founder Valerie van Heest said her group will try to get the shipwreck added to the National Register of Historic Places. Only 10 of the many known wrecks in Michigan waters now have that distinction, she said during a news conference to announce the finds.

Rushie