(Provided by Brendon Baillod) Mediator in service c. 1890, the only photograph of the ship known to exist.

Editor’s note: This is Part Two of a series of the identification of the schooner barge “Mediator,” which sank in the Keweenaw Waterway in approximately 1900. Part One appeared in the Jan. 29 edition of the DMG.

When Brendon Baillod and his dive team first investigated the remains of a sunken wooden ship in the Keweenaw Waterway, near the Michigan Technological University power plant, they had no idea of its identity. It did not seem to coincide with historical records of other vessels in its vicinity. With Baillod in the 1990s Keweenaw Waterway dives, were Randy Beebe, Dan Fountain and Kurt Fosburg. What they saw, however, was that over the decades, the remains had not been treated kindly.

“As we sank below the thermocline, the temperature of the water suddenly dropped into the 40s and the bright sunshine above became a dim brown glow,” Baillod stated. “Slowly, the skeleton of a massive ship began to take shape out of the gloom. She was draped in an endless web of fishing line, from which many Daredevils, Rapalas and other lures hung. An avid fisherman, I unsheathed my dive knife and postponed the survey until all the visible lures were in my tackle box and the tangling fishing line was cleared.”

Once able to resume the survey, Baillod and Beebe affixed a measuring reel to the stem post of the vessel, which to their surprise, trailed off over the edge of the channel and into deeper water.

“It quickly became apparent that the wreck was much larger than it appeared from the surface.” Baillod stated. “We both stared in disbelief as the 126-foot marker peeled off the reel when the stern was reached.”

Initially, Baillod and Beebe did not know what they had found, but investigating further, they noted the massive white oak keel and many ribs and knees that formed the skeleton of the ship. It soon became apparent that the vessel had been a sailing ship, and even by Lake Superior maritime standards, it was old. The marks of the handsaws and adz that were used to construct the hull were apparent.

“She had been reinforced with iron knees that had held her decks in place, but years of ice had long since removed them,” Baillod said. “The ship’s hull had been broken by ice and waves, but she was in much better shape than vessels of similar age exposed to Lake Superior. The sheltered reaches of the Waterway and the low oxygen content of the water had preserved her quite well.”

Whatever the ship was, Baillod’s and Beebe’s initial investigation revealed that the vessel appeared to have sailed well past its useful life.

“We puzzled over the identity of this large, ancient ship for many months after our dives on her,” Baillod stated. “Both Randy and I were well acquainted with the Keweenaw’s wrecks but none seemed to fit this vessel’s description.”

There was one clue, however, that helped Baillod and Beebe eventually positively identify the ship.

The Annual Report of the US Lifesaving Service for 1898, recorded that the crew of the Portage Canal Lifesaving Station had gone to the aid of the big steamer Colorado, which had blundered onto Sawtooth Reef off Eagle Harbor during a frightful gale on September 18, 1898.

“On their way to the wreck (Colorado), they spotted the old schooner barge Mediator aground about one mile west of the mouth of the Gratiot River,” stated Baillod. “The Mediator’s crew had made it ashore in their yawl and appeared to be out of danger, so the lifesavers continued onward to the Colorado.”

A bit more historical research would, it would turn out, positively identify the sunken hulk in Portage Lake near the Michigan Tech power plant, solve some decades-old mysteries, and bring to light the details of the life of the ship Baillod and Beebe had worked so hard to identify.