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The wreck of the Westmoreland some 170 years ago has been discovered. But millions in gold – and 280 barrels of whiskey – remains untouched under 200 feet of the great lake.
After nearly 170 years under Lake Michigan, sonar detected what turned out to be the Westmoreland, a passenger ship that sank in the winter of 1854. Seventeen lives were lost that day, as well as 280 barrels of whiskey and a stash of gold were thought to be buried in sand forever. That treasure is now valued at about $17 million.
A team of divers located the wreck on July 7, 2010, under local historian and recreational diver Ross Richardson, but what is found is still out of reach. Michigan law prevents amateur divers from salvaging shipwrecks without authorization. That authorization is still not granted.
“It is probably one of the most well-preserved shipwrecks from the 1850s on the planet,” Richardson said.
Richardson, an amateur diver and shipwreck sleuth from Grand Rapids, Michigan, found the wreck of the Westmoreland sitting upright on the lake bed, 200 feet under the surface of a bay where summer vacationers frolic in the shadow of the Sleeping Bear Dunes Lakeshore.
The Westmoreland sank in December of 1854 after battling through a blizzard on Lake Michigan. Crashing waves eventually extinguished the fire in the boiler, leaving the cargo-laden steamer powerless and at the mercy of heavy winter seas just three miles from safety off a then-remote stretch of Lake Michigan coastline.
Media coverage and publicity attracted the attention of several universities interested in mapping the Westmoreland, and nearly 10 years after Richardson found the wreck, he was able to explore it alongside a team of researchers.
Richardson is still hoping to get permission to bring up the treasure.
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