Madeira Anchor – Beaver Bay, MN
N 47° 11.617 W 091° 23.033
15T E 622420 N 5227947
The grain and iron ore ship “Madeira” plied the waters of Lake Superior until its demise in 1905, and now its anchor rests in front of the Split Rock Lighthouse visitor center.
Waymark Code: WMXEW8
Location: Minnesota, United States
Date Posted: 01/03/2018
Views: 3
The grain and iron ore ship “Madeira” plied the waters of Lake Superior until its demise in 1905, and now its anchor rests in front of the Split Rock Lighthouse visitor center. A marker tells more about the relationship between the anchor and the lighthouse and reads as follows:
This anchor was salvaged from the shipwreck of the 5000-ton steel barge, Madeira, which was tossed up against Gold Rock Point, about a quarter mile northeast of here, during the fierce storm of November 27-28, 1905. As the ship broke apart on the vertical face of Gold Rock Point, one of her crew, Fred Benson, carrying a coil of rope, leapt to the rock and, in the snow and dark, climbed the 80-foot cliff, secured the rope, and threw it down to the rest of the crew. Nine of her crew of ten men survived by climbing the rope to safety at the cliff top. One man died in the attempt as the ship broke apart and sank.
The storm of November 27-28, 1905 sank or heavily damaged more than 20 ships on the western end of Lake Superior. Nine ships were wrecked and eleven men were killed along the North Shore. As a result of this storm the U.S. Congress funded the building of Split Rock Light Station. The lighthouse went into service on July 31, 1910 within a quarter mile of the “Madeira” shipwreck.
Working underwater for three weekends, the divers removed the four-ton anchor by hacksawing the heavy chain. The anchor was moved by truck to a dive shop in Brainerd, Minnesota for display. It was later returned to the North Shore where for many years it was displayed outside a gift shop along Highway 62 near Split Rock Lighthouse. In 2010 it was moved to its current location.
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