Diving the Whaleback Clifton in Lake Huron

Shipwreck: Whaleback S.S. Clifton

By: Michael Lynch

The History

The S.S. Clifton was originally built and christened as the Samuel Mather.  The whaleback was built at the American Steel Barge Company in West Superior, Wisconsin in 1892.  She was 308 feet long, had 30 foot beam, and had a 24 foot depth with a 3,500 ton capacity. 

For 31 years the vessel worked the great lakes carrying iron ore.  From 1923 to 1924 the vessel was refitted in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin with a topside self-unloading boom to handle the change in cargo from iron ore to stone aggregate .  Inside the cargo holds, a Smith-patented tunnel scraper system was installed and allowed the ship to quickly unload and allowed the vessel to offload at ports previously unable to be serviced by the ship.

The tragic story of the S.S. Clifton started out on September 21, 1924 in Sturgeon Bay.  This was right after the Clifton had completed the upfit of the unloading boom to the deck of the whaleback for service as a stone aggregate carrier.  From there the Clifton took on a load of stone aggregate that was scheduled to be delivered to Detroit.  By 10:20am the Clifton was seen passing through the Straits of Mackinaw.  There was even a report that a tug on Lake Huron saw the freighter downbound that evening in Lake Huron.  Unfortunately, that evening a gale hit the Clifton while on Lake Huron.  It is believed that sometime during that storm the Clifton quickly foundered with the lost of Captain Emmett Gallagher all 27 other souls on board.  Speculation was that the upfit of the self unloading boom contributed to the loss of the vessel due to instability. 

Drawing by Robert McGreevy (www.McGreevy.com) of the Clifton in that fatal Gale in 1924

When the Clifton did not arrive in Detroit three days later a search was started.  The searchers looked along the coast of Lake Huron and couldn't find a trace of the Clifton.  It wasn't until days later that wreckage started to wash ashore on the Canadian side.  This was the first indications of where the Clifton foundered.  The Clifton and what really happened would remain a mystery for another 92 years! 

Newspaper Article from Wisconsin Journal, September 26, 1924

The Discovery

It wasn't until Dave Trotter and the Underwater Research Associates announced the discovery of the Clifton in September 2017 that more details about the mystery could be gathered. Within his announcement they state that the wreck was found in June of 2016 with the first dives by the URA team on September 24, 2016.  From that dive they were able to confirmed the target was the S.S. Clifton.  From that point, the teas was able to complete 9 more dives on the Clifton through the following 2017 dive season before announcing the find and the first pictures of the Clifton laying on the Lake Huron bottom.  As normal practice for the team, the location of the wreck was held in private with the team.

Drawing by Robert McGreevy (www.McGreevy.com) from information by the URA team on what the Clifton looks like on the bottom of Lake Huron.

In 2017, before the announcement by the Trotter team, there were rumors within the local diving community that the Clifton had been found.  We also spent days in 2017 investigating and scanning leads for areas that we thought the Clifton might be.  Unfortunately the 2017 season did not provide any substantial targets for us.  So we continued more research and chart investigations over the winter to setup plans for searching in 2018.

Our Story

In May 2018 the shipwreck diving season started for us on the Great Lakes.  Diving this time of year is very cold and any technical dives this time of year are normally kept pretty short.  We were fortunate that this early season gave us a very flat day, albeit very cold, and we decided to follow up on some potential target information that we had been pursuing at the end of the 2017 and researching over the winter.

Beautiful day out on Lake Huron to be searching for shipwrecks.

After about 4 hours of sidescan work, we ran across a hit.  Running the boat over the target it was very clear that we found what we were hoping to find.  We believed it to be the Whaleback S.S. Clifton!

Calm waters on Lake Huron make for great conditions for side scan imaging

Our first view of the S.S. Clifton as it appears on the side scan image

Did I mention it was still really cold out!  Cindy and I were the only ones on the boat that day searching the lake.  In fact, I don't remember seeing another boat except for a few passing freighters.  We had a good discussion about diving the target.  Only having two people on the boat makes for a more challenging time mooring into the wreck as it would require one to dive and tie into the wreck and the second person, single handed, managing the running of the boat.  While this is not impossible, adding in the variables of the cold temperatures and the long distance from shore for help or emergency aid, we made the prudent decision that we would need to come back later in the season to make our dives.  We saved the coordinates and dreamed of warmer times when we would get back and make a dive on the site to confirm what we had found.

Cindy warming up between rounds at the helm sidescan searching Lake Huron's bottom

Mike at the helm trying to stay warm while searching the Lake Huron bottomland

One of the good and bad things about the Clifton is that its wreck location is a ways out in Lake Huron.  This means that not many people will be stumbling across it and diving this location requires an almost perfect day due to the time it takes to make the run out to the location.  So, it took us a while before we could get a good opportunity to get back out to the site.

The Dive

Later in the season (with somewhat warmer water temperatures) we had the opportunity to make that dive.  This time we had our dive buddy Chris Roth along to add a 3rd set of hands for setting up the mooring into the shipwreck.

Upon descending to the shipwreck, it was undeniable that this was the Clifton.  The whaleback ships are so distinctive!  This is an amazing dive.  Many artifacts are all over the shipwreck.  Here are a few images from our dive on the Clifton.

The stern of the whaleback Clifton.  Its such a unique design.  The Clifton is laying on its port side.

Chris swimming toward the bow of the Clifton

Chris taking video of items laying on the bottom of Lake Huron.

Chris stops to look at the beautiful ships wheel on the Clifton.  The upper section of the stern cabin is missing.

This gives you some perspective on the size of the stern cabin with Chris visible just to the left.

Much of the bow is destroyed on the Clifton when it impacted the lake bottom.  This is the remains of the forward structure that was on the bow of the Clifton.

Another view looking toward the stern of the bow section of the Clifton.  You can easily see the massive amount of damage as the ship struck the bottom of Lake Huron.

More mangled debris from the bow of the Clifton.

Penetrating into the engine room of the Clifton.

White paint, gauges, and controls all visible within the engine room of the Clifton.  Being inside the wreck this area is protected from the Zebro/Quagga mussels that invade a shipwreck on the outside.

Another image showing the white painted woodwork inside the Clifton.

A guage panel inside the engine room.  Notice the intact light bulb and glass enclosure in the background.

Looking within the very stern of the Clifton.  On the right of the image is the white painted wood ceiling with the light bulb still intact after all these years.

Looking down the deck of the Clifton.  Much of its stone cargo has spilled out onto the lake floor.  The mooring winch is visible on the middle of the deck.

The A-Frame of the unloading boom.  This boom was just added in Sturgeon Bay prior to its fateful journey that ending in a Lake Huron storm.

Another view of the deck of the Clifton and its load of stone spilled out onto the lake floor.

Items from the Clifton that were most likely placed by the original discovery team.

More artifacts from the Clifton.

A fire extinguisher from the Clifton.  This sits just outside the openings to the stern structure.  Most likely this was placed here by the original discovery team.

An image of the unloading boom that was added prior to the Clifton's last sail.  Many believed the loss of the Clifton was due to instability from the addition of this boom.  However, after now finding the Clifton, the boom is still in position and does not appear to be the cause of her sinking.

The A-Frame for the unloader boom on the Clifton.

The bow structure completely torn free from the bow itself.

Looking down the remains of the stern cabin structure.

Dive Team

Cindy Lynch
Chris Roth
Michael Lynch