GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — It was a foggy day in 1940 when the SS Arlington set out for what would be its final voyage.
On April 20, 1940, the 244-foot ship was hauling wheat across Lake Superior, leaving from Port Arthur, Ontario, and heading for Owen Sound, Ontario.
The WWII-era ship had been used as a “taxi service” to bring supplies like food and ammunition to other ships, Corey Adkins, the content and communications director for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, explained to Nexstar’s WOOD.
A freighter, the Collingwood, was following behind. While it was faster and larger than the Arlington, it didn’t have a direction finder, Adkins explained.
While some captains wouldn’t leave in fog, Capt. Frederick Burke, also known as “Tatey Bug,” made the decision to head out anyway on the Arlington. Adkins said on that day, he was “acting very odd.”
So when the fog turned into a storm and first mate Junis Macksey decided to avoid the north wind by hugging the Canadian shoreline, the captain countermanded the order, making the decision to stay in the open water.
“He would come out of his bunk and yell and say, ‘You do what I tell you to do. Don’t do what the first mate does.’ So they kept their course,” Adkins said. “Meanwhile, the Arlington is taking on a lot of water.”
Eventually, in the early hours of May 1, the chief engineer made the call to abandon ship. The crew, without orders from Burke, got into the lifeboats and headed for the Collingwood, which was waiting for them.
“They all got onto the Collingwood — except for Captain Burke,” Adkins said. “Captain Burke decided to go down with his ship.”
There are reports that Burke waved at the Collingwood before the Arlington sank below the waves. He also could have easily made it onto the freighter, instead of going down with the Arlington.
“To this day, nobody will ever know why he decided to do that,” Adkins said.
The ship sank about 35 miles north of the Keweenaw Peninsula in 600 feet of water. But the vessel was only recently discovered by shipwreck researcher Dan Fountain, who has been using remote sensing data to find Lake Superior shipwrecks for the last decade.
Fountain found the area and knew it could be a wreck, and reached out to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS) for help. The team brought out their research vessel last summer and confirmed the find to be a shipwreck, later sending down an ROV (remotely operated vehicle) to confirm it was the Arlington.
“That turned out to be quite a story that we uncovered,” Adkins said.
The team says they’re glad to be able to provide closure for Burke’s family.
“For decades, nobody knew where that ship was, so there was always that mystery of, where did it go down?” Adkins said. “Just to give those answers to the people back in Midland, Ontario, where … it was based out of, is a pretty neat feeling to have. And it’s just, it’s another Great Lakes mystery and story that we can get out there and share with the public.”
Adkins is working on a documentary on the shipwreck that will debut at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival on Feb. 24 in Livonia. He said the film will feature underwater video, interviews, and stories from the ship, including the story of how two hockey players found themselves on the Arlington that night — and how they never went back on the lakes again.
The GLSHS is also sharing the story on its website and social media “for the world to know about this story because it is a part of our history,” Adkins said.
