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 Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society

Dedicated to Preserving our Shipwrecks and Maritime History
"From Prevention to Preservation"



News Stories

3DShipwrecks - Comet

Ken Merryman | Published on 5/1/2023

We have just added another Lake Superior Whitefish Bay shipwreck to our 3dshipwrecks.org website and database. The 181 ft propeller Comet was built as a packet steamer in 1857. A full upper passenger cabin deck was added in 1859 to accommodate the passenger trade. In its career it sank four times and changed ownership eight times. It was rebuilt after each sinking except the last one. In 1875 while operating on Lake Superior it collided with the Manitoba about seven miles off Whitefish Point and sank for the final time killing eleven of the 21 passengers and crew on board. It was discovered in the 1970’s by Tom Farnquist and the Great Lakes Historical Society. The model was a team photography effort by Andrew Goodman, Dusty Klifman and Ray Wilson with surface support by Tom Farnquist and Ken Merryman. It was one of the most difficult shipwrecks to photograph we have done due to the poor visibility, its 230 ft depth and many protruding obstacles. It is also our first experiment shooting a wreck with standing arches. The model was created from 5,220 images. The link to the new model is: https://3dshipwrecks.org/shipwreck-comet-propeller/