Images show several key sections of the SS Arlington remain intact following her sinking in a storm on Lake Superior 84 years ago (Photo Courtesy - Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society)
Officials with the Transportation Museum of Thunder Bay say the recent discovery of a shipwreck in Lake Superior has a connection to the Lakehead.
Earlier this month researchers announced they had discovered the wreck of the SS Arlington which Connor Kilgour, who serves as one of the museums history interpreters, notes left Port Arthur in May of 1940.
“She had a cargo of wheat that was heading toward Port McNicoll and she floundered and the only casualty was her Captain, who sadly was lost when the ship went down.”
According to Kilgour, the rest of the crew abandoned ship and were able to swim over to another vessel, Collingwood, which was accompanying Arlington.
She was discovered via a side-scan sonar in 2023, with later dives confirming the vessel’s name, and currently rests in a little over 600 feet of water 35 miles (56km) north of Michegan’s Keweenaw Peninsula., which puts her roughly 22 km south of Isle Royale.
Kilgour adds there is an element of excitement over the impact this discovery will have.
“While Arlington wasn’t from here, she wasn’t built here, her story and the fact that we were her last port of call just adds to the mystery and the history the lakes, and not just to our region but to the entire area of the whole.”
This he says could be incorporated into the museum here in Thunder Bay as more details come to the surface.
