Alpena, Michigan, United States

Joseph S. Fay

The Joseph S. Fay was a 65-metre wooden steam barge built in 1871 in Marine City, Michigan. On 19 October 1905, while running light from Cleveland to Escanaba in a heavy gale, she broke up in the breakers off Forty Mile Point on the Lake Huron shore north of Alpena. The captain and crew survived, but the ship was a total loss. The wreck now lies in just 4 to 6 metres of water inside the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, which protects the graveyard of more than 200 known shipwrecks in northwest Lake Huron. The hull is broken but the keel, frames, planking, capstan and machinery sit clearly on the sand and cobbles, and the long, intact rudder washed ashore on the beach next to the site. The shallow profile, cold-fresh visibility (often above 10 metres) and gentle currents make the Joseph S. Fay one of the easiest historic shipwrecks in the Great Lakes for snorkelers and open water divers, and it is a popular two-tank pairing with the Norman or the Montana.