AH-WR-0820

Westmoreland

Passenger And Package Steamer · United States · Lost 1854 · Manitou Passage

A legendary 1850s sidewheel steamer, rumored to carry gold and whiskey, that iced up and sank in a winter gale and was not found again for 156 years.

Become Captain of Record See Shipwreck on Map

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Interpretive Reconstruction, drawn to convey the vessel's era, type and general form. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

Westmoreland was a wooden sidewheel steamer carrying winter supplies from Milwaukee to Mackinac Island when a December 1854 storm coated her decks with ice and opened a leak that doused her boiler fires. She sank in Platte Bay near Sleeping Bear Point with roughly half of the 34 aboard lost. Rumors of gold coin and whiskey in her cargo fueled more than a dozen search expeditions over the following century and a half, until diver Ross Richardson located the wreck in 2010, remarkably well preserved in about 200 feet of water.

Vessel

Built: Not established
Builder: Not established
Yard: Not established
Material: Wood
Length: 160 ft
Beam: Not established
Tonnage: Not established
Propulsion: Steam, sidewheel
Owners: Not established

Loss

Date: December 7, 1854
Cause: Storm
Location: Platte Bay, near Sleeping Bear Point, Lake Michigan
Water: Lake Michigan
Voyage: Milwaukee, Wisconsin → Mackinac Island, Michigan
Cargo: Winter supplies; rumored gold coin and whiskey cargo unconfirmed
Aboard: 34
Lives lost: 17
Master: Not established

The Wreck Today

Depth: 200 ft
Condition: Sitting upright, bow and arches intact; described by its discoverer as exceptionally well preserved for an 1850s wreck.
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: 2010
Protection: Within the Manitou Passage State Underwater Preserve.

Position

Coordinates: 44.74° N 86.11° W
Accuracy: General area only
Nearest: Platte Bay, near Empire, Michigan
Region: Manitou Passage

General area only: coordinate of Platte Bay from the USGS Geographic Names Information System, marking the named place of loss recorded for this vessel, not a surveyed wreck position.

Evidence

Overall confidence: Partially documented (70/100)

Exact casualty figures, precise coordinates, and the truth of the rumored treasure cargo are not firmly established in the sources reviewed.

MLive (Michigan news)
Loss narrative, depth, discovery account, casualty context.
Glen Arbor Sun
Passenger count, discovery year, general narrative.
USGS Geographic Names Information System — Platte Bay, Michigan
coordinate of the named place of loss