MV Nordmeer 1966
Marker: recorded wreck position (Modern).
Key facts
| Name | MV Nordmeer | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1966 | English Wikipedia lead text (year following a loss verb, parsed) |
| Era | Modern | derived from year |
| Ship type | ship, shipwreck | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | Grounding or wreck on rocks | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nearest coast | United States | Natural Earth (public domain) |
| Position | 45.1360, -83.1598 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
MV Nordmeer was a West German ocean freighter built in 1954 by Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft in Flensburg, West Germany. The 471-foot, 8,683-ton steel vessel operated as a general cargo ship and was on its first voyage into the Great Lakes when it wrecked on a reef in Lake Huron near Thunder Bay Island, Michigan, on November 19, 1966.
Diving & visiting
In the years following the wreck, portions of Nordmeer's valuable cargo were salvaged. The Philadelphia-based Glen Steel Company recovered nearly 989 steel coils, each weighing around ten tons, in a six-month operation during 1968. The ship's remaining 21,000 gallons of fuel posed a pollution risk to the Thunder Bay area. Between 1969 and 1970, divers under Bob Massey and Dave Funk successfully removed the remaining fuel, with each tank being vented by controlled detonations to ensure complete drainage.
For many years, large sections of Nordmeer remained visible above the lake's surface. By the late 1990s, storms and ice had reduced her to a mostly submerged wreck.
The wreck of Nordmeer lies at coordinates 45°08.161′N 83°09.586′W, approximately seven miles north of Thunder Bay Island in Lake Huron. The large diesel engine and portions of the steel hull remain visible to divers. A steel salvage barge rests alongside the wreck, a relic from early recovery efforts. The site is now protected within the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, where it remains one of the sanctuary's most visited dive sites. Artifacts from the Nordmeer are displayed at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena, Michigan.
Location
- Recorded position: 45.1360, -83.1598 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Nearest coast: United States
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article MV Nordmeer (revision 1353899613), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Salvage and environmental concerns”, “The wreck”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- Defiance 14 km
- SS Pewabic 1865 · 20 km
- Norman 22 km
- Kyle Spangler 35 km
- SS Choctaw 52 km
- F. T. Barney 1868 · 66 km
Browse more: North America wrecks · wrecks off United States · Modern