PHILADELPHIA

By: Capt. Ron Burkhard

The iron-hulled steamers Philadelphia and Albany collided at 2 am on Tuesday, November 7, 1893 off Pointe Aux Barques Lighthouse, Huron County, Mi.  The Philly struck the Albany hard in the side, but quickly loaded her crew on board and took the Albany under tow.  Heading for Harbor Beach, the Albany began sinking and was cut loose.  Within a half-hour, the Philly herself began sinking and the crews abandoned ship in two lifeboats. After successfully getting away from the foundering ship, the boats remained in contact for about 10 minutes.  So far, no lives had been lost.  However, only one lifeboat reached shore.  24 men where in the missing lifeboat and somehow forfeited their lives.  Only 12 bodies were ever recovered.  What happened  to these men will forever remain a mystery.

We will explore the remains of the Philadelphia first and later visit the Albany. The Philly was a 236’ long iron-hulled steamer from the Anchor Line.  Built in 1868, it was a good-looking ship with wooden upper decks, a single mast and smokestack, and a small circular pilothouse. She was carrying a load of coal and general cargo which included stoves, bottles of ketchup, olive oil, hand lotion, strawberry and apple butter preserves.

Leaving from Grindstone Harbor, it is 9 miles on approximately an 82-degree true heading to the wreck site.  This shipwreck was discovered in 1973 by John Steele and is a very popular site for SCUBA divers. At 120’ deep, this wreck is accessible to most divers who have medium to advanced skills (while breathing compressed air).  Depending on the time of year, the water temperature at depth varies from the high 30’s to the mid-50’s.

A mooring line, leading to the ship’s engine, is usually attached to this wreck because it is in the Thumb Bottomland Preserve.  As my wife, Judy, and I leave the surface and descend down the line, the water darkens and becomes colder.  The top of the engine appears out of the gloom and we glide past it to the main deck at around 95’.  This wreck sits upright on its keel on a hard bottom.  Its iron hull is intact, but the wooden superstructure is lying on the lake bottom scattered around the ship.  We begin to explore the ship by swimming around the stern deck where we see a capstan, mooring bits, and some steering gear.  The tall engine extends up from the keel to about 10’ above the main deck.  A deck opening with a ladder that leads down into the engine room captures our attention.  We follow this down to discover coal, tools, a workbench, and other wreckage lying on the floor.  I find the size of the engine fascinating and follow the drive shaft out to the billow block where it exits the stern.  The iron hull is rusting, but the plates, rivets, and bracing are clearly visible. I also notice some open portholes. 

As we leave the engine room and swim across the main deck above the rear bulkhead, we decide to go over the starboard rail down to the lake floor.  Heading for the stern, we discover an open case of canned goods lying under the hull.  The cans have partially rusted away but are still neatly in order in their wooden box.  Nearing the stern, the massive propeller and rudder come into view.  The prop is entirely clear of the bottom and the rudder is upright and secure.  Under the rudder shoe is a depression in the lake bottom, hiding in it are several large Burbot. 

Turning away from the rudder, we swim to port out to some wreckage on the bottom.  Exploring the crevices and underside of the large piece of wreckage, I am astounded to find an intact Heinz ketchup bottle.  After 108 years underwater at a depth of 120’,  it’s contents look edible.  In addition, lying upside down and almost completely buried is what appears to be another capstan.  This piece of wreckage was probably another deck floor above the main deck level.  I am excited that after the many dives we have made on this wreck, new discoveries are still being made. Swimming back toward the hull, we find firebrick, railing posts, and other wreckage.

 Coming up over the rail on the opposite side we had left from, we pass steam equipment for the engine, flywheels, and gears used for deck machinery.  We turn for the bow and swim over the center of the ship. We are lucky the visibility is good because we can look through the open deck areas to the bottom of the cargo holds. Coal, shoes, bottles, partitions, and a handcart are visible. Some of the main deck planking is missing, some caved-in, and some intact. It is here that we see the most interesting artifacts of this shipwreck.  Tall upright stoves were part of the cargo.  They are scattered on deck and lying on the lake bottom off both sides of the hull.  Even though they are rusty, their intricate detail is beautiful.

Continuing on, we pass huge gears, pulleys, and a drive shaft that appears to run from the engine to the bow, and reach the windlass.  Huge links of chain snake out of the chain locker, go through the chain pipes, around the windlass, through the chocks, and out the hawsepipes.  We swim over the gunwales and look down.  One anchor chain ends just out of the hawespipe on the starboard side.  However, the port chain goes down and leads to a huge wooden cross-stock anchor standing upright on the bottom.  It is beautiful.  If you want to see its twin, visit the CharHouse Restaurant on M-15 in Bay City.  It was taken from the wreck during the 70’s.  As we swim down the anchor and come to its flukes, we look around and see hand tools, a shoe, and a white bottle lying on the bottom.  I pick up the bottle and read the raised lettering on one side.  It says Champlin’s Liquid Pearl.  This was some of the general cargo being carried by the Philly.  Later, while doing research using the 1890’s Huron Times, I saw an advertisement for Champlin’s.  As I remember, it was a hand lotion \ lineament type of product.  The cork was still in this bottle.  The museum at Lighthouse County Park has three of these bottles and a porthole from the shipwreck.

Well life is good, but all things must end.  By using double air tanks, we have had an extended bottom time and must pay for it with lengthy decompression stops.  If we stay longer, we will have longer hang time on deco.  Besides, we are starting to get cold.  On the deeper dives, its  not always air shortage that sends us for the surface.  It is the cold and knowing we have a long decompression stop to avoid the crippling affects of nitrogen bubbles in our blood.

As we cruise the lake bottom (along the starboard hull) on the way back to the engine, we pass more wooden superstructure, stoves, the smokestack, and a huge cowl ventilator pressed against the hull.  When we reach the box of canned goods we had found earlier, I know its time to swim up and over the deck to reach the engine, with its mooring line.

Judy and I usually make a short stop at the ascent line to check each other over and make sure everything’s ok.  Then we slowly start our rise up toward the warmer water and brightening light.  There still is a while to go before we will get back in the boat, but as we hang on the rope at our deco stops our time is spent reflecting on the dive completed and it’s many awesome sights.

Next time we will visit the other victim in the tragedy, the Albany.