hunter savidge

By: Capt. Ron Burkhard

The wreck of the Hunter Savidge lies under 150’ of water in Lake Huron.  It is about 8 miles out from Pointe Aux Barques Lighthouse on a 50 deg. heading.  To dive it, we left from Grindstone Harbor on a beautiful fall day in 1996.  It was a rough ride in 4’ whitecaps out to the site.  Our good friends and excellent divers Capt. Mac and Admiral Margie MacDonald in their boat “No Mercy”,  runabout to their bigger boat “Tender Mercy”, accompanied us.  After being blessed with an easy grappling hook-in to the wreck, I descended alone down the line to the wreck.

I was nearing 150’ of depth and wandering when the ship was going to appear.  As it began to take shape in the gloomy depths, I set my camera controls.  The visibility was not that good but I could see that the part of the shipwreck I was on was pretty broken up.  The grappling hook had snagged a part of the gunwale that was almost touching the lake bottom.  The ships deck was tilted at a 45-degree angle and broken off near the grappling hook.  As I made my way along the deck, I could make out the shattered bow area ahead.  This area was badly damaged with busted timbers jumbled together with the anchor windlass.  I did not see any anchors.  As I turned away, I saw a porcelain pot lying among the wreckage.

Slowly swimming back toward the grappling hook, I saw deadeyes, fife railing posts, chain, pulleys, and lots of burbot.  A section of the deck had some grooves notched in it with some broken bolts sticking out so I stopped to inspect it.  Then I noticed a deck winch lying down the deck.  It probably had sat in this spot on the deck and been torn loose in the sinking.  Further along I saw a bilge pump lying on some busted planking.

As I swam out over the ship’s rail, I noticed that the tongue and groove wood forming the high sides of the ship still had some paint on it.  The fine detail and beadwork of the wood, with nail heads, was clearly visible and in excellent condition; considering that the Hunter Savidge sank in 1899.  Swimming down to and along the lake bottom, I noticed it was composed of areas of fine gravel and some silt.  I came upon a rusty bowl shaped object.  Next, I spotted a white porcelain coffee cup half buried in the lake bottom.  Picking it up, I noticed the delicate handle was unbroken.  Gently setting it back down, I wondered who among the crew had last used that cup.  Did they survive the shipwreck?

Returning to the railing, I am at the broken deck section I had first come down upon.  I had hoped to find the cabin area to see if the women had remained trapped inside, but as I peer into the gloom, I realize its time to ascend.  Still I remain.  Pictures I have seen of Capt. Fred, his wife, Rosa, and the twins, David and Johnny,  remind  me of the awful tragedy that this family experienced.  Not recovering the bodies of your lost loved ones must have been an added torment to the Captain.

As I slowly surface, the MacDonalds pass me on their way down to the wreck.  They explored the bow area and followed an anchor chain quite a ways out from the wreck.  They finally turned back without ever seeing what was at the end of the anchor chain.

Just recently, I had a chance to talk to Mr. David Trotter, the man who discovered the wreck of the Hunter Savidge.  Trotter is the premier wreck finder in the Great Lakes and has invested a lot of his time and money in pursuit of his goal of finding undiscovered shipwrecks.  He said he has found about 70 shipwrecks in all the Great Lakes except Lake Ontario.  He certainly has discovered the majority of the known shipwrecks around the thumb and he is still hunting, although he was elusive about what he is now searching for.

Trotter  started researching the Hunter Savidge in 1980 and finally found it in 1988.  Since I had only dove this ship one time and he had many dives on her, his insight was very valuable in explaining what I had and had not seen.  He started by explaining that the ship probably rolled over at least 90 degrees onto her side and came back upright with only the extreme stern showing and some of the topmasts sticking above water.  The ship was angled downward by the bow at a 45-60 degree angle.  The crew was thrown into the water and the women trapped in the cabin.

Trotter believes the ship sank holding this attitude and smashed hard into the lake bottom.  The jibboom and bowsprit were driven back into the bow, which also crumbled upon striking bottom.  So hard was the impact, the masts were snapped off above deck and hurled over and out in front of the bow wreckage.  He said these were large oak masts 30-36” in dia.  The rest of the ship collapsed and is “laid open” on the bottom.

Trotter said when he first found the wreck he couldn’t identify it.  He had thought because the Hunter Savidge sank in calm water  and was not carrying cargo, she would be mostly intact.  After diving the wreck for a month, he found her port nameboard out away from the wreck.  He said she almost resembles a “pile of lumber”.  This remark prompted me to ask if he had found the cabin area and maybe the women’s skeletons.  He stated they had found cabin wreckage, but with the wreck so broken up there was no discernable cabin area.  He had not found any evidence of remains.

Trotter was featured as a Great Lakes wreck hunter in the Winter 2001 issue of “Immersed”, the International Technical Diving Magazine.  Among the many interesting images in the nine-page article, was a sidescan sonar image of the Hunter Savidge.  He was kind enough to interpret the image for me.  This image shows the masts out in front of the wreck, then a long loop of anchor chain, some bow wreckage with anchors, and the main broken body of the ship.  Off to the side on the lake bottom is a long dark board shaped object.  Trotter said he set out into the gloomy depths on one dive to find this object.  As he swam along, he let his hand drag on the lake bottom to mark his return trail.  About 40-50’ out he came about a section of the port railing.  Then, artwork, scrolling, and finally the name “Hunter Savidge” came into view.  He could finally verify that this was the wreck he had been seeking.

Despite the trill of finding virgin shipwrecks, Trotter is sensitive to the tragedy and suffering the victims and families endured.  He has visited the grave of Mr. John Mullerweiss, owner of the Hunter Savidge, and spoke a few consoling words to the grave concerning the loss of his ship and loved ones.

The Pointe Aux Barques Lighthouse Museum and Thumb Bottomland Preserve Dive Information Center has a nice informative display of the Hunter Savidge story.  There are pictures of the Sharpsteens, even of his new wife and their two children.  Capt. Fred continued sailing and lived until 1914.  The museum has a copy of his Master License dated 1910.  They also have a copy of the letter he wrote his surviving 16-year-old twin son on August 22, 1899.  It starts out “Dear Son David, you are all I have in this world to help me mourn for our dear loved ones we have lost.”  To read the rest, visit the museum.

The Sharpsteens lived in Sebawaing and this tragedy had a lot of local interest.  The Captain had two sons (Jacob and Robert) with his second wife.  For years, the sons lived next to each other on Sharpsteen Street.  Although they have both passed away, Jacob just recently, I did talk to Roberts widow about the Hunter Savidge.  Captain Fred Sharpsteen’s house is still standing and in the family, so my wife and I drove over to look at it.  I wanted to see the house that Rosa and Johnny had walked out of in 1899, unknowingly leaving it for the last time.

The two-masted schooner Hunter Savidge was built for the Savidge family, a name prominent in lumbering.  Mrs. Savidge’s  maiden name was Hunter, so the ship was named Hunter Savidge.  Next, we will explore another ship that involves a woman’s name-- the EMMA L. NIELSON.