William L. Harkness of New York City, a
Standard Oil investor, was out on an extended cruise in
August of 1911. He had declined use of a pilot to navigate
through the Schreiber Channel thinking the fee was too high.
He was bound for the quaint town of Rossport approximately
100 miles from Port Arthur. His vessel the Gunilda was
sailed towards the little town under his instructions to the
captain. Gunilda was a luxury steam yacht built in 1897.
This would be its last journey.
Coming around towards Rossport, on the
northwest side of Copper Island the Gunilda rammed hard up
on McGarvey's Shoal. The keel raising up some 6 feet out of
the water. McGarvey's Shoal rises from the bottom of Lake
Superior from a depth of 280 feet to a mere 3 feet. All
aboard were taken off the vessel and taken into Rossport
where Harkness then contacted his insurance and the tug
"James Whalen" was dispatched from Port Arthur.
Under direct instructions from Harkness,
the tug pulled the Gunilda off of the shoal against the
suggestions from the salvers. As the yacht was pulled away
from its obstruction she took on water through it's
collision hole and listed badly to starboard. She filled
with water and swiftly sank to the bottom resting some 3
feet away from the vertical rise of McGarvey's Shoal in 265
feet of water.
The Cousteau Society once visited the wreck
of the Gunilda and claimed it was the most well preserved
and prestigious shipwreck in the world.
Since it's sinking several salvage attempts
have been made. None were anywhere near being successful. In
1970 the site of the Gunilda took its first diving
casualty, that of Charles "King" Hague. "King" was searching
for the wreck with his diving partner Fred Broennle when the
accident happened. This then instilled a life-long ambition
in Fred Broennle to salvage the Gunilda. In 1976, Fred's
company Deep Diving Systems used high tech remote underwater
TV camera systems to locate and recover "King" Hagues body.
Financial difficulties later arouse that prevented Fred from
raising the Gunilda.
Later in 1989 the wreck site took another
life of deep diver, Reg Barrett, from Burlington, Ontario.
Lately the wreck has become of great
interest to technical divers as a recreational dive site.
It's now termed to them as the "G" spot.
The following video photoclips were taken
in September of 2000. To see the gold leafing still present
on the bowsprit brings chills. It truly is one of the most
well preserved shipwrecks of its age. Hopefully accelerated
diver traffic will not bring harm to the "Reluctant Lady
of McGarvey's Shoal". Care should be taken when
swimming around this prestigious shipwreck
site.
