In less controversial news.

Well-preserved shipwreck found in Lake Superior.

Great Lakes is a misnomer--they are freshwater seas.

Here is a good--perhaps nearly complete--listing of Great Lakes shipwrecks. Here's a much less comprehensive list from a diver's website, including a few pictures from his dives.

The worst ever? The Eastland Disaster, where a ship carrying over 2500 Western Electric employees on a picnic excursion foundered just off Chicago, killing 812 people in 1915.

The most famous, of course, remains the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald, immortalized by Gordon Lightfoot, lost with all hands in the brutal November 1975 storm. Also rightly immortalized is the Mariners' Church, which is worth a visit if you're in these parts.

The best book on the subject is by diver Frederick Stonehouse. Especially worthwhile is Stonehouse's highlighting of the heroism of the crews of the other ships in the area, especially those of the Arthur Anderson and William Clay Ford (yes, Lions fans, named for that WCF) who went into the teeth of the gale in an effort to search for survivors.