The storm was unexpected: dense fog changed to a deadly squall swiftly. Dark waves battered the hull of the Arlington and it began to take on frigid Lake Superior water. Crew members must have been relieved to know that another, sturdier ship — the freighter Collingwood — was nearby. All sixteen of them were able to make their way safely to the Collingwood in a small lifeboat: but the captain, Frederick "Tatey Bug" Burke, remained behind.
For reasons unknown, the captain went down with his ship despite the proximity of the larger Collingwood. Reports from crew members suggest that Burke was last seen — waving — near the Arlington's pilothouse shortly before his ship sank into Lake Superior on May 1, 1940.
That same pilothouse is shown in one of the photographs taken by a remote-operated vehicle (ROV) driven by shipwreck researcher Dan Fountain and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society. Working together using remote sensing data, Fountain and the society recently uncovered the wreck of the 244-foot Arlington in more than 600 feet of water about 35 miles north of the Keweenaw Peninsula.
The research team drove the R/V David Boyd towards the suspected site. They towed a side-scan sonar over a deep anomaly that Fountain had identified from the remote sensing data. They then deployed the ROV with cameras to confirm that the wreck was that of the Arlington.
“These targets don’t always amount to anything ... but this time it absolutely was a shipwreck. A wreck with an interesting, and perhaps mysterious story," said Bruce Lynn, director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. "Had Dan not reached out to us, we might never have located the Arlington.”
"We could be out there days at a time and won't see anything. And so to find a wreck, it's always exciting. The importance in finding these wrecks is, in some cases we can set the record straight as to what was happening in the final moments of a ship before it sinks. I think it's keeping this history alive and it's also solving certain mysteries at the same time," Lynn said.
Lynn said that the Arlington left Port Arthur, Ontario on April 30, 1940, fully loaded with wheat. It navigated through dense fog that turned into a storm as night fell. First mate Junis Macksey ordered a more sheltered course hugging the Canadian shore, but Burke countermanded the order and continued to traverse the open lake. Around 4:30 in the morning, chief engineer Fred Gilbert sounded the ship's alarm and the crew evacuated for the Collingwood in one lifeboat, Lynn said. Burke remained behind at the Arlington's pilothouse.
Lynn said the Arlington's story is particularly interesting and that the Shipwreck Museum hopes to share its story with a potential exhibit and artwork in the future.
"There was an investigation that followed the sinking of the Arlington. There was a lot of discussion about Captain Burke's behavior. A lot of people felt that there was something else going on with him — who knows what that was — something that really had him not acting as he normally would," Lynn said.
Burke was a "seasoned veteran" of the Great Lakes, according to the society. "The fact is no one will ever know the answer," as to why Captain Burke did not evacuate with his crew, the society said in a statement.
