Emily Chan
The ship had been sailing across Lake Michigan on the morning of September 30, 1893, when a storm rolled in with wind gusts that reached up to 50 miles per hour.
When Captain David Clow discovered several feet of water in the hold, he ordered his crew to abandon the ship. It went down in the treacherous waters before it could reach safety, taking the captain’s dog with it.
The crew managed to make it to the beach in the lifeboat. They were then taken to St. Charles Hotel to dry off. The incident had left Clow so distraught that he vowed to quit sailing.
But, he was most upset about losing his dog, who was described as “an intelligent and faithful animal, and a great favorite with the captain and crew.”
The captain said, “I would rather lose any sum of money than to have the brute perish as he did.”
Many other shipwrecks have been found in Lake Michigan. Just weeks before the discovery of the Muir, the 1886 wreck of the steamship Milwaukee was found. It is estimated that over 6,000 ships have gone under in the Great Lakes since the 1600s.
