SS Vienna (1873) - Wreck Artifacts

Wreck Artifacts

The wreck of the Vienna was discovered in 1975 by the United States Fisheries R.V. Kohvo research vessel while setting fish sampling nets. She was then extensively explored by divers Kent Bellrichard of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Tom Farnquist, Director of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS) and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. Shipwreck historian Gerred wrote of Bellrichard and Farnquist's dives to the Vienna:

They had made many trips to the wreck and brought up some interesting artifacts. Among them were a hand carved eagle atop the pilot house, the ship's wheel, wooden blocks, portholes, a telegraph bell, whistle pull, dishes, crocks, and a large grindstone. Farnquist, who is an expert on making lamps, book ends, and tables from wreck material, refinished the wheel. He mounted it against blue velvet with a polished frame of wreck wood. It is displayed at the Lake Superior College and will be donated to their future marine museum. The eagle also was refinished and donated to the museum ship, Valley Camp.

Michigan’s Antiquities Act of 1980 prohibited the removal of artifacts from shipwrecks on the Great Lakes bottomlands. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) 1992 raid on the GLSHS offices and Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum included seizure of artifacts that were illegally removed from the Vienna. Artifacts from the Vienna’s wreck are on display in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum as a loan from the State of Michigan by a 1993 settlement agreement with the GLSHS following the DNRE raid on the museum in 1992. The Vienna’s wreck in now protected by the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve as part of an underwater museum.