Last year, Ross Richardson discovered the Jarvis Lord, a shipwreck he had been searching for quite some time. We featured his article in The Scuba News Canada last year, and are bringing our readers up to date with actual video coverage.
Ross Richardson is an underwater explorer and author of Michigan Mysteries. Ross lives in Michigan, U.S.A.
The Jarvis Lord rests about 2 1/2 miles west of Pyramid Point, at a depth of 220 feet (67 meters). (Manitou Passage) Her bow is pointed southeast, in the direction of the nearby shoreline she was trying to maneuver to.
Between 1872 and 1885, the SS Jarvis Lord, a wooden-hulled American Great Lakes freighter transported goods on the Great Lakes. On August 17 or 18, 1885, when loaded with iron ore, she sank in the Manitou Passage on Lake Michigan without the loss of any lives. Jarvis Lord was travelling in the Manitou Passage on her way from St. Ignace, Michigan to Chicago, Illinois, when she sprung a leak and began sinking rapidly. Captain Richard Neville requested that the pumps be activated and that Jarvis Lord be steered towards Pyramid Point so that she could be beached.
The situation had deteriorated (input of water) to the point where the crew was told to abandon ship by Captain Neville. She sank stern first the water and went down fast after an explosion. According to Ross, the ship is not pristine and there is wreckage everywhere and there is more of the scattered Jarvis Lord to explore. The entire crew survived and made it to Glen Haven, a port village on the shore of Lake Michigan.
2020 was a rough year for exploration and documentation of shipwrecks. COVID19, the weather, mechanical problems, equipment malfunctions, scheduling issues and just about anything else you can imagine conspired to keep us from getting the number of photos and videos we desired of this newly discovered shipwreck. We are therefore sharing the location of the JARVIS LORD in the hope that others will dive and explore the shipwreck and share their information with the public. Please take photos and videos, but leave the numerous artifacts for future generations.
N 44 57.778 W 85 59.390 Enjoy!
Quote from Michigan Mysteries Article