A number of ships have “gone missing” on Lake Superior. The Bannockburn, Lambton, Henry Steinbrenner, Manistee, Sunbeam and Merchant are only some of the lost fleet still lurking deep in the Big Lake’s dark and icy depths.

But the most inexplicable loss was that of the French Navy minesweepers Inkermnan and Cerisoles, each with French 38 sailors and a Great Lakes pilot aboard. To this day their fate remains one of the inexplicable mysteries of the Great Lakes. They were part of a dozen of the tough little vessels built by Canadian Car and Foundry in Fort William, Ontario (today’s Thunder Bay). The pair, plus the minesweeper Sebastopol, left Port Arthur on November 23, 1918 bound for Montreal, before final delivery to France. Somewhere in Lake Superior Inkermann and Cerisoles disappeared. Desperate searches failed to find the missing warships. No confirmed human remains were ever recovered and what little flotsam was found gave mute testimony to the disaster. Accusations of poor construction, shoddy seamanship and collision followed but real evidence was illusionary. French Navy investigations were equally empty of solutions. The mystery remains unsolved.

Join the Marquette Maritime Museum  for Fred Stonehouse's "Gone: The Greatest Shipwreck Mystery on the Great Lakes" on December 6, 2022 at 7pm at the Ore Dock Brewing Company. Come early for our Christmas Ornament sale at the Museum Gift shop table. $5 suggested donation at the door. Sponsored in part by the Michigan Arts and Culture Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Upper Michigan Energy Resources, in partnership with We Energies Foundation. This program will begin with a brief annual meeting of the Marquette Maritime Museum. Call 906-226-2006 for more information.