As the ship entered Lake Superior’s Whitefish Bay between Michigan and Canada on Aug. 30, a gale came up. With no cargo, the ship was floating high in the water. The storm battered it until it cracked in half. Twenty-seven people died, including the Minch family.

This image provided by Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society shows the broken mast from The Western Reserve, a merchant ship that sank in Lake Superior in 1940 off Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. (Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society via AP) MADISON,