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Negaunee Township man helps locate Lake Superior shipwreck

Plates and other dishware are found intact on the J.S. Seaverns, which sank near Michipicoten Harbor in 1884. Led by Negaunee’s Dan Fountain, a group of shipwreck hunters discovered the wreck earlier this year. (Photo by Nick Lintgren)

NEGAUNEE — For maritime and mining historian Dan Fountain, his underwater adventures began with his first shipwreck dive at age 8 when he held his breath and swam 6 feet below the surface to explore the wreckage of the schooner George Sherman near the family camp along Lake Superior.

Now at age 65, the Negaunee Township resident still searches for wrecks, with one of his most notable journeys taking place in July.

That’s when he and other wreck aficionados made the successful trip to locate the steamer J.S. Seaverns, which sank near Canada’s Michipicoten Harbor in May 1884.

That site is located about 100 miles north of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, which isn’t exactly in the middle of civilization.

That didn’t stop Fountain and the others from making the trek, which they funded out of their own pockets.

Dan Fountain

Fountain is retired from what are now Cliffs Natural Resources and RTI Surgical. He also is president– for the third consecutive year — of the Ishpeming Rock and Mineral Club.

Ships that have sunk over the years, however, also are capturing his interest.

“I’m a shipwreck nerd,” Fountain said. “I’m been interested in them for a long time.”

A “loosely knit” group of people set out this summer to find the Seaverns. That group included Ken Merryman of Minnesota’s Twin Cities area; Nick Lintgen of New Hope, Minnesota; Jerry Eliason of Scanlon, Minnesota; and Kraig Smith of Rice Lake, Wisconsin.

“The whole expedition is kind of a culmination of a long period of research,” Fountain said.

One of the first things he saw about the ship came about 10 or 15 years ago when, looking at a chart of the Michipicoten area, he noticed a wreck symbol with the same “Saffern.” Several years later, he came across a reference to the Seaverns and discovered they were one and the same.

“I’ve seen it spelled about seven different ways,” Fountain said.

Merryman, who just retired from the computer industry in Minnesota, had enough time on his hands to circumnavigate Lake Superior on his boat — and look for the wreck.

The men, when searching for the Seaverns, used historical accounts and old charts to guide them, finding the sunken boat in relatively short order on July 28, Fountain said.

“We went out in the morning,” Fountain said. “Found it early afternoon, which is phenomenally fast. Ordinarily it takes a long time, in many cases, months — if not spread over years — to find something like that.”

Fountain’s wife, Judy, said her husband contacted her right away.

“He was on the phone, ‘We found it! We found it!'” she said.

Later that afternoon, Merryman and Lintgen made the dive to see the boat.

What they found was astounding.

Merryman later told the Duluth News Tribune that parts of the ship were “amazingly intact.”

Having been in the cold freshwater Lake Superior undoubtedly contributed to its relatively untouched state, considering it’s been underwater for about 132 years.

A saltwater environment is much harder on a shipwreck, Fountain noted. Still, the state of the sunken Seaverns, which he said was about 130 to 140 feet long, was unusual.

For instance, an image from a video taken by Merryman shows dishes stacked neatly on shelves. Other photos show the remains of a heating stove and other debris on the deck as well as a steering wheel.

So, did the wooden ship go down in a quick, relatively orderly manner?

“Apparently it went down fairly level,” Fountain said.

According to an article at smithsonian.com, after unloading food and supplies at Michipicoten, the ship struck a rock while backing out, putting a hole in it. The Seaverns sunk about halfway during the subsequent seven-mile harbor cross, although its 15-member crew and 45 passengers survived.

“It was really a new port,” Fountain said in defense of the ship’s captain. “It hadn’t been anything but possibly a fishing village until the construction of the Canadian Pacific. Then it was used as a trans-shipment point for supplies and provisions for the crews.”

The shipwreck hounds have a few new projects in mind, including some sites in Lake Huron.

Although Fountain likes searching for shipwrecks, he writes about them as well. He co-authored “Dangerous Coast: Shipwrecks of the Pictured Rocks” with fellow maritime historian Frederick Stonehouse and has written for Michigan History magazine.

Fountain also has land-based hobbies, one being a rockhound. He is the author of “Michigan Gold and Silver: Mining in the Upper Peninsula” and has written for Rocks and Minerals magazine.

Strangely enough, Fountain wasn’t always a huge history buff.

“History was never an exciting subject in high school, memorizing dates of battles and so on,” Fountain said.

Local history, though, he finds fascinating.

Especially shipwrecks.

“These are really time capsules,” Fountain said. “You take a look at what the cargo was on there and realize what it was doing there.”

In the case of the Seaverns, which sunk during an intensive period of railroad building — the Canadian Pacific Railway — it was carrying many boxes of what were probably salted sides of pork or beef that still are preserved, said Fountain — not that he would eat any.

Fountain pointed out the crew, which needed a permit from the Ontario Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sport, wasn’t allowed to salvage items from the Seaverns or even disturb anything.

“Realistically, you can’t even pick up something to take a closer look at it,” Fountain said. “You’re not really allowed to even fan the silt away from something to get a better look because that is a preservative.”

Although the team wants to make a return trip to the Seaverns to get more film, Fountain won’t divulge the depth of the Seaverns shipwreck site.

“It’s shallow enough that people can dive it but it’s deep enough that most people shouldn’t,” he said.

Fountain wants other people, though, to know about the find. In fact, he plans to make a presentation, “A Most Outlandish Place: The Wreck of the J.S. Seaverns,” in March in Ann Arbor at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival.

Fountain, who owns a small boat, doesn’t plan to stay too idle for long.

“There are things I’m still looking for in the Marquette area here,” Fountain said.

Christie Bleck can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250.

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