The wreck of the Westmoreland some 170 years in the past has been found. However thousands and thousands in gold – and 280 barrels of whiskey – stays untouched beneath 200 ft of the good lake.
After practically 170 years beneath Lake Michigan, sonar detected what turned out to be the Westmoreland, a passenger ship that sank within the winter of 1854. Seventeen lives had been misplaced that day, in addition to 280 barrels of whiskey and a stash of gold had been considered buried in sand endlessly. That treasure is now valued at about $17 million.
A group of divers positioned the wreck on July 7, 2010, beneath native historian and leisure diver Ross Richardson, however what’s discovered remains to be out of attain. Michigan regulation prevents beginner divers from salvaging shipwrecks with out authorization. That authorization remains to be not granted.
“It’s most likely one of the well-preserved shipwrecks from the 1850s on the planet,” Richardson stated.
Richardson, an beginner diver and shipwreck sleuth from Grand Rapids, Michigan, discovered the wreck of the Westmoreland sitting upright on the lake mattress, 200 ft beneath the floor of a bay the place summer time vacationers frolic within the shadow of the Sleeping Bear Dunes Lakeshore.
The Westmoreland sank in December of 1854 after battling by a blizzard on Lake Michigan. Crashing waves finally extinguished the fireplace within the boiler, leaving the cargo-laden steamer powerless and on the mercy of heavy winter seas simply three miles from security off a then-remote stretch of Lake Michigan shoreline.
Media protection and publicity attracted the eye of a number of universities excited about mapping the Westmoreland, and practically 10 years after Richardson discovered the wreck, he was capable of discover it alongside a group of researchers.
Richardson remains to be hoping to get permission to carry up the treasure.
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