Miztec (schooner Barge)

''Miztec'' was built as a three-masted schooner in 1890. She was later converted to a schooner barge and served as a consort for lumber hookers on the Great Lakes. She escaped destruction in a severe 1919 storm that sank her longtime companion, the , only to sink on the traditional day of bad luck, Friday the 13th in May 1921, with the loss of all hands. She came to rest on Lake Superior's bottom off Whitefish Point near the ''Myron''.

The ''Miztec''s wreck was illegally salvaged in the 1980s. Artifacts from the ''Miztec'' became the property of the State of Michigan after they were seized in a 1992 Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) raid on the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The State allows the museum to hold a triple sheave block and hook and a double sheave block and hook from the ''Miztec'' as a loan. Her wreck is now protected by the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve as part of an underwater museum.

Career

The wooden ''Miztec'' was built as a three-masted schooner in 1890 in Marine City, Michigan. She was enrolled at Port Huron, Michigan on 8 April 1890. On 3 May 1890 she ran ashore near Minorville, Wisconsin.

The ''Miztec'' spent the final years of her career as an O.W. Blodgett Lumber Company barge consort towed by lumber hookers. She was stranded by her tow, the , off Vermilion Point in a severe November gale in 1919. She narrowly escaped total destruction and suffered heavy damage but survived the storm while the ''Myron'' did not. She was rebuilt in 1919.

Final voyage

The Blodgett fleet of the ''Zillah'', ''Miztec'', and ''Peshtigo'' locked through the Soo headed for a spring gale and the ''Miztec''s doom on Friday 13 May 1921. The wooden steamer ''Zillah'' was towing the schooner barges ''Miztec'' and ''Peshtigo''. The ''Zillah'' and ''Miztec'' carried bulk salt bound for Duluth, Minnesota and the empty ''Peshtigo'' was scheduled for drop off at Munising, Michigan.

west of Whitefish Point, the fleet met the full brunt of the storm's heavy snow and near hurricane-force winds. The 31-year-old wooden ''Zillah'' started taking on water when her seams twisted open in the raging seas. Her steam engine could barely maintain her bow to the seas. The master of the ''Zillah'' decided to turn around and take shelter in Whitefish Bay. The ''Zillah''s tow line broke during the strain of the turn, stranding the ''Miztec'' and ''Peshtigo'' in the storm, and then the tow line between the two barges broke.

In an effort to reach the lee of Whitefish Point, the ''Peshtigo'' set short sails that the wind soon shredded. The ''Peshtigo'' dragged both anchors as the wind and waves forced her toward shore, and the pounding surf of the dangerous shallows. When the crew of the Vermilion Point Life-saving Station saw the ''Peshtigo''s struggle, they launched two surfboats that were destroyed by the crashing sea. The ''Peshigo''s anchors finally caught hold about from shore and she and her crew survived the storm.

When the tow line between the ''Miztec'' and the ''Peshtigo'' broke, Captain Campbell of the ''Peshtigo'' saw the ''Miztecs''s lights disappear with his brother on board. His brother was the ''Miztec''s first mate. While the ''Miztec'' survived the 1919 storm that took her partner, the ''Myron'', her run of good fortune ended when she sank with the loss of all seven crewmembers on the traditional day of bad luck, Friday the 13th. Captain Neal, who was rescued near-death clinging to the pilothouse of the ''Myron'' in 1919, was serving as the ''Zillah''s first mate when the ''Miztec'' sank in 1921. When the freighter ''Renown'' came upon the flotsam of the ''Miztec''s sinking site, its crew sighted a body atop the deck house, but unlike Captain Neal's rescue, the body slipped into the seas as they approached.

The ''Renown'' reported their finding to the United States Coast Guard. The Coast Guard went to the wreck scene and buoyed the ''Miztec''s spar that was protruding from shallow water with plans to dynamite her as a navigational hazard as she lay near the shipping lane, but they were unable to relocate her when they returned. It was believed that as her salt cargo dissolved, she moved along the lake bottom to deeper water. The ''Miztec'' came to rest not far from the wreck site her longtime companion lumber hooker, the ''Myron''.

No bodies were recovered from the ''Miztec''s sinking site, but six days after she sank, First Nations people on Maple Island, Ontario (south of Batchawana Bay) discovered the body of Florence Pederson, the cook and the wife of the captain of the ''Miztec''.

The ''Miztec'' was an estimated $10,000 loss to O.W. Blodgett Lumber Company.

Wreck

The ''Miztec''s wreck was discovered in 1983 by the Oddessey Foundation in of water at . The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) raided the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point in 1992 for artifacts illegally removed from the Great Lakes bottomlands. The DNRE seized around 150 artifacts from the museum, including a triple sheave block and hook and a double sheave block and hook from the ''Miztec''. Following a settlement agreement between the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society and the State of Michigan, the State's artifacts from the ''Miztec'' are on loan to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society for display in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum.

The ''Miztec''s wreck is now protected by the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve for future generations of scuba divers. The ''Miztec''s remains are broken and scattered on the lake bottom but her anchor and chain and other gear are still present. Although the ''Miztec''s wreck is one of the shallower wrecks, sports divers are cautioned to be certain of their abilities and equipment for dives because the preserve does not include protective bay or coves from the cold and volatile weather. Divers who visit the wreck sites are expected to observe preservation laws and "take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but bubbles."

See also

* Graveyard of the Great Lakes

Notes

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Miztec
1890 ships
Merchant ships of the United States
Maritime incidents in 1921
Shipwrecks of Lake Superior
Schooners of the United States
Barges of the United States
Schooner barges
Ships built in Marine City, Michigan
Ships lost with all hands
Wreck diving sites