History buff finds ships that sank in 1878 in Lake Michigan

A diver and maritime history buff has found two schooners that collided and sank into the cold depths of northern Lake Michigan more than 140 years ago.

Bernie Hellstrom, of Boyne City, Michigan, said he was looking for shipwrecks about 10 years ago when a depth sounder on his boat noted a large obstruction about 200 feet (60 meters) down on the lake bottom near Beaver Island.

"I've made hundreds of trips to Beaver Island and every trip I go out the sounder is on," he told The Associated Press on Friday. "But if you happen to see something that's not normal, you go back. A lot are nothing but fish schools. This was 400 feet of boat. There's nothing out there that big that's missing."

This Aug. 24, 2019, photo provided by John Janzen, shows part of the wreckage of the schooners Peshtigo and St. Andrews, lost in 1878 near Beaver Island in northern Lake Michigan. A group of maritime history enthusiasts led by Boyne City, Michigan diver and explorer, Bernie Hellstrom have announced the discovery of the schooners. The site was located in 2010 by Hellstrom during one of his many trips to explore the Beaver Island archipelago. (John Janzen via AP)

He returned to the area in June with a custom-made camera system and discovered the Peshtigo and St. Andrews about 10 feet (3 meters) apart with their masts atop one another. The hull of one of the ships has a huge gash.

It had been believed the ships sank in 1878 farther to the east in the Straits of Mackinac in Lake Huron. But only one ship could be found and that was thought to be the St. Andrews.

"They never found the second boat," said Hellstrom, 63.

Hellstrom brought technical divers in to record video of the wrecks. Madison, Wisconsin-based marine historian Brendon Baillod was recruited to help solve the mystery.

Baillod said he searched through old news reports and learned that the Peshtigo and St. Andrews did hit each other and sink between Beaver and Fox islands, northwest of Charlevoix, Michigan.

The Peshtigo was 161 feet (49 meters) long and carrying coal. The St. Andrews was 143 feet (43 meters) long and carrying coal. The collision was blamed on confusion in signal torches, he said.

Two of the Peshtigo's crewmen were lost. Survivors from both ships were rescued by another passing schooner, according to Baillod.

Wayne Lusardi, Michigan's state maritime archaeologist, calls finding the actual resting place of the Peshtigo and St. Andrews a "fantastic discovery."

"You can argue that any new discovery is important because it really gives you a first-time look at something that has been lost and missing for such a long time," Lusardi said.

He added that the Peshtigo and St. Andrews "had been mistakenly identified as two vessels up in the Straits for decades."

"Now, it begs the question: What are those wrecks?" he said.

An estimated 6,000 shipwrecks sit on the bottoms of the Great Lakes, according to Cathy Green, executive director of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc.

"If you think about it, cities like Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee would never have been able to develop without the water highway," Green said. "When material remains of that history is found, it's a big deal to historians and archeologists."

BEIRUT (AP) — The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday.

The repatriation was the largest Washington has carried out from the camps to date, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. Five of the 11 citizens brought back were children, and one non-U.S. citizen child -- the 9-year-old sibling of one of the other children -- was also brought with them.

As part of the same operation, the U.S. facilitated the repatriation of 11 other camp residents, eight of them children, to Canada, the Netherlands and Finland, the statement said.

Although the pace of repatriations has picked up -- neighboring Iraq recently returned hundreds of its citizens -- many countries remain reluctant to bring back citizens from the al Hol and al Roj camps, which now hold about 30,000 people from more than 60 countries, most of them children.

The camps are run by local authorities affiliated with the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF and its allies, including U.S.-led coalition forces, defeated the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019, ending its self-proclaimed Islamic “caliphate” that had ruled over a large swath of territory straddling Iraq and Syria.

Human rights groups have regularly reported on what they describe as inhumane living conditions and abuses in the camps and in detention centers where suspected IS members are housed.

“The only durable solution to the humanitarian and security crisis” in the facilities “is for countries to repatriate, rehabilitate, reintegrate, and where appropriate, ensure accountability for wrongdoing,” Blinken said in the statement.

FILE - Kurdish forces patrol al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the Islamic State group in Hasakeh province, Syria, on April 19, 2023. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)

FILE - Women shop in the marketplace at al-Hol camp, home to families of Islamic State fighters, in Hasakeh province, Syria, on March 31, 2019. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)