In August 1892, the Western Reserve was sailing across Lake Superior when it got caught in a late summer storm. The 300-foot vessel was roughly 60 miles north of Whitefish Point when a powerful gale swept in and broke up the ship,

After searching for two years, researchers discovered the shipwreck of the Western Reserve, an early all-steel ship that broke apart in a gale in 1892 with a sole survivor.

Twenty years before the Titanic changed maritime history, another ship touted as the next great technological feat set sail on the Great Lakes. The Western Reserve was one of the first all-steel cargo ships to traverse the lakes.