in the beginning this year , father - girl duo Tim and Henley Wollak were out boating when they made an unexpected find : a 152 - year - old wreck .
The outing start when Henley ( aged 4 at the fourth dimension ) need to go drown and expect at rock music and sea chicken feed around the southeast shore of Lake Michigan ’s Green Island . As her papa wanted to go fishing , they strike a compromise – go to Henley ’s favorite smudge , and drive their gravy boat very slowly so they could look for fish .
While looking at a Pisces - finding microwave radar , they came across something a bit unusual . Henley originally consider they ’d found an devilfish , due to the shape seem like there were tentacles . Her father , however , thought it may be ashipwreck .
“ At first when we see to it it in the boat , I think it was coolheaded to see something like that , " Wollak , 36 , toldUSA TODAY . " At that time I did n’t bed the order of magnitude of what it was . ”
Tim took the pic to unlike Facebook groups and it eventually found its fashion to the Maritime Preservation and Archaeology Program , which is part of the Wisconsin Historical Society . On December 4 , 2023 , the Wisconsin Historical Society knead with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to investigate the shipwreck using a remotely operated vehicle equipped with a video camera .
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They discovered that the wreck was a wooden three - masted navigation ship , submerge in 8 to 10 feet ( 2 to 3 meters ) of water , and now believe it to be the stiff of theGeorge L. Newman , which was in the beginning construct in 1855 in the Black River , Ohio . On the evening of October 8 , 1871 , the ship ran aground after trouble fancy through the smoke billowing from thePeshtigo attack – one of the most devastating fire in US history , with over 1,200 lives lose .
The smoke from the fire was so chummy that the lighthouse custodian nearby had to keep the light on during the Clarence Day . After sail unsighted and running onto the shoals of Green Island , the custodian was able to aid rescue the work party , who abide at the lighthouse for a week after the incident as they attempted tosalvageas much as possible from the wrecked vessel .
The ship was then forsake , covered in moxie , and block until Henley and Tim Wollak re - discovered it in August 2023 .
The Wisconsin Historical Society Maritime Preservation and Archaeology Program hopes to survey the crash in the coming spring , planning to assess the internet site as a listing on the National Register of Historic Places .
