Beneath the lake's depths, the ship miraculously retained much of its structure, including cabinets still stacked with plates!
From The Daily Wire:
“We were stunned to see that not only was the deckhouse still on her, but it still had all the cabinets with all the dishes stacked in them and all the crew’s effects,” Baillod told the New York Times. “It’s really like a ship in a bottle. It’s a time capsule.”
There were eight men aboard the ship who escaped in a lifeboat and made it to Algoma, Wisconsin, in May 1881. The ship’s dog went down with the wreck.
“The captain and the crew immediately escaped in the ship’s yawl and after battling waves, the cold crew made it in to Algoma (then Ahnapee). The only loss aboard the TRINIDAD was the ship’s mascot, a large Newfoundland dog who was asleep next to the stove when the ship began to sink,” the Wisconsin Historical Society said.
Baillod and Jaeck used the account written by John Higgins, the ship’s captain, to help them locate areas to search for the wreck.
“The wreck is among the best-preserved shipwrecks in Wisconsin waters with her deck-house still intact, containing the crew’s possessions and her anchors and deck gear still present,” a press release on the ship’s finding said.
How cool, right?
It's incredible how there are so many underwater wrecks that remain so close to their original state. It really is like a little time capsule trapped beneath the water's surface.
