Computerized image courtesy of Jerry Eliason

Jerry Eliason's 3D computer image of the Manasoo shipwreck shows the dramatic angle of its bow.

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By Tanda Gmiter | MLive

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LAKE HURON - An international team of shipwreck hunters today announced their discovery of the Manasoo, a steel steamer that sank in Lake Huron 90 years ago this fall - a deadly tragedy blamed in part on the shifting of a huge herd of cows it was ferrying from an island to the mainland.

The 178-foot steamer sank abruptly on Sept. 15, 1928. Sixteen of the 21 people on board died, along with the 115 cows and one bull that had been loaded onto the boat from Canada's Manitoulin Island, which lies east of Michigan's Drummond Island in the U.P.

The five survivors - the captain, three sailors, and the cows' owner - drifted on a raft for 60 hours. They were suffering from exposure and in rough shape when they were found by another steamer in the Georgian Bay, part of Lake Huron which is slightly separated from the big lake by Canada's Bruce Peninsula.

On June 30 of this year, shipwreck hunters Ken Merryman and Jerry Eliason, both from Minnesota, and Cris Kohl from Windsor, Ontario, found the Manasoo sitting in just over 200 feet of water near the Georgian Bay port town of Owen Sound.

They describe the wreck as "amazingly intact," with her pilot house and unusual mid-ship staircase seemingly untouched.

With their permission, we are sharing some of their dive photos to the Manasoo, and have pulled together some information and witness accounts from this unusual Great Lakes shipwreck.

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Photo courtesy of the Kohl-Forsberg Archives

The Manasoo was named the Macassa for most of its 40-year lifespan. The ship carried vacationers and cargo between Toronto and Hamilton.

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Photo by Cris Kohl, courtesy of Ken Merryman

From the two electronic wreckhunting devices on board the boat, each shows a different angle of the found shipwreck.

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Artwork by Bob McGreevy, used with permission

The Manasoo lies upright in more than 200 feet of cold water in the Georgian Bay part of Lake Huron near the city of Owen Sound, her stern deeply embedded in the bottom and her bow rising on a pronounced angle towards the surface.

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SAILORS' SUPERSTITION

Built in Scotland in 1888, the steamer spent most of its years carrying vacationers and cargo between Toronto and Hamilton on Lake Ontario. During those years, she was known as the Macassa.

At some point, she was rebuilt with length added to accommodate more passengers and cargo. She was sold in 1928 to the Owen Sound Transportation Company, and largely given designated runs between Manitoulin Island and the Sault Ste. Marie area.

She was renamed the Manasoo - which was a combination of her destination names.

"But the Manasoo proved to be a classic example of the bad luck that will plague a vessel, according to sailors' superstition, after its name has been changed," the shipwreck hunters said.

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Photo courtesy of Ken Merryman

A diver approaches the Manasoo's intact pilot house. The vessel has an unusual mid-ship stairway, a 1928 modification.

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Photo courtesy of Cris Kohl

Jerry Eliason, the electronics expert on the discovery team, adjusts the "sonar fish" that will be towed in deep water behind the boat.

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Photo courtesy of Ken Merryman

The international wreck hunting team of (left to right) Jerry Eliason, underwater electronics; Ken Merryman, licensee, boat operator, and underwater videographer; and Cris Kohl, maritime historian and diver.

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Photo courtesy of Greg Hilliard

The only passenger to survive the sinking of the Manasoo was the owner of this 1927 Chevrolet Coupe automobile, visible from one of the ship's side openings. He also owned the many cattle that went down with the ship.

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HEAVY LIST TO PORT

On Sept. 14, 1928, the Manasoo left Manitoulin Island and was headed for Owen Sound when a storm gathered over Lake Huron.

According to an account of the wreck in a written collection called "Steamboat Stories,"cattleman Don Wallace had a plan to purchase cattle from farmers on Manitoulin and have them moved to the mainland for sale.

"In all, he bought about $5,600 worth, and had only about $300 left in his pocket at the end of the buying spree," according to the account.

The cattle were loaded onto the Manasoo, with the 115 cows put in four separate pens, with just enough room to turn around. The lone bull was in a separate pen. They were brought onto the main deck, which was about 3 feet above the waterline.

In all, the cargo was estimated to weigh about 60 tons.

"This was Wallace's first experience to transport cattle by boat," the story collection said. "He noticed that unlike transport by railway box cars where bedding was hay, bedding on the Manasoo was sawdust, pen slats were not nailed to posts, they were tied and knotted with rope to metal stanchions, and pens had two plank slats instead of four or five. He said nothing as he figured the crew knew what they were doing."

The storm intensified overnight, battering the Manasoo with strong winds and big waves. Since being lengthened by 23 feet in 1904, accounts say crew members had noticed the Manasoo tended to roll more during rough weather on the lakes.

She listed heavily to port. It quickly became clear the Manasoo was going down. The crew started jumping off the ship, most to their doom.

Witnesses say they saw her bow sticking 25 feet in the air when she plunged, stern-first, into the depths of Lake Huron.

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Photo courtesy of Cris Kohl

The Manasoo was trying to reach the safety of Griffith Island when it sank. The island's lighthouse is one of only six "imperial" lights on Georgian Bay, built in 1858. It is automated and still in use today.

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Photo courtesy of Ken Merryman

Cris Kohl carefully lowers Jerry Eliason's underwater video camera and lights so the team on the boat can view the wreck without getting wet.

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A SWIFT WRECK

A 1928 newspaper account of the wreck, according to the Maritime History of the Great Lakes website:

"The events that followed happened within approximately three minutes; firstly the captain realizing that something was very wrong, sent the first mate below to find out what was happening, but before the mate got back on the bridge, the captain had swung the wheel towards land, hoping to beach the ship on the island.

"Before any headway was made, however, the engines stopped, water pouring into the engine room had put out the fires. The mate, on getting back on deck after seeing that the ship was doomed, ordered the lifeboats lowered.

This was started and when only one boat was in the water, the old MANASOO rolled on her side, slowly reared her bow into the air and slid, stern first, to the bottom."

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Photo courtesy of Greg Hilliard

The Manasoo's wheel is covered by invasive zebra and quagga mussels.

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Photo courtesty of Terry Irvine

A handheld light from a deep diver sheds light on the Manasoo's wheel inside the intact pilot house.

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A HARROWING ORDEAL

For the Manasoo's survivors, the next 60 hours were hellish, not knowing whether they would be found:

From a 1928 article in the Toronto Telegram:

"Somehow or other, these six men got aboard the raft when they saw the life-boat upside-down with only two men clinging to it. Later they watched as the two men were washed off and swallowed by the waves.

"For sixty hours they clung to the raft, always wet, with the waves constantly washing over them, numbed by the cold as the night's temperature dropped to near freezing.

"The Chief Engineer only a few hours away from rescue, died of exposure and his coveralls were stripped from him and given to the purser who was, as mentioned earlier, clad only in summer underwear.

The Chief's body had to be pushed into the water as the raft was leaking and couldn't hold them all."

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Photo courtesy of Terry Irvine

A diver moves past the Manasoo's collapsed smokestack with one of the ship's lifeboats underneath it, while another lifeboat that failed to do its duty dominates the foreground.

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A DIVE OF DISCOVERY

Once the survivors were rescued from their harrowing ordeal - and a search effort confirmed there were no more to be rescued - an investigation got underway.

Witness accounts showed the crew seemed baffled as to why the steamer would list so badly to one side, even during that storm. Had there been a leak in the stern that allowed water to flood the back of the boat?

Authorities' questions seemed to focus in on the large load of cows on the main deck. They wanted to know how they were penned, and if the rolling of the Manasoo in the waves could have caused the cows to shift to one side, putting the wreck in motion.

Two members of the team that discovered the Manasoo this summer had tried to find her last year, but with no luck. Their search was done under a license issued by the province of Ontario. Once located, technical divers were brought in from Canada to help photograph the Manasoo.

"They shot video and photographs of the steel hull, the collapsed smoke stack, the intact pilot house with its unique stairway ... three of its lifeboats, and many other components, including a vintage 1927 automobile below deck. No human or animal remains were seen."

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Image courtesy of Google Maps

Griffith Island

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Image courtesy of Google Maps

Lake Huron's Georgian Bay, on the Canadian side

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GREAT LAKES SHIPWRECKS

Want to read more about Great Lakes shipwrecks? Here are some stories of deep-water tragedies and heartwarming rescues:

Daring rescue of sailors entombed in icy "White Hurricane" shipwreck

Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, photos of the Great Lakes' most famous shipwreck

Hear call to help Edmund Fitzgerald on night 29 were lost in Lake Superior

Why the White Hurricane of November 1913 was the worst disaster in Great Lakes history

Epic salvage effort saved 230 new Chryslers from U.P. shipwreck