The S.S. James Carruthers was one of many ships that sank in the Great Lakes during the "White Hurricane" blizzard of November 1913.
Brendon Baillod/FacebookThe S.S. James Carruthers was the largest ship that sank during the “White Hurricane.”
In 1913, a massive blizzard that became known as the “White Hurricane” swept across the Great Lakes. A dozen ships sank in the storm, including a 529-foot Canadian freighter called the S.S. James Carruthers. The vessel’s 22 crew members joined around 250 sailors who died in the blizzard, but the ship itself was never recovered.
Now, shipwreck hunter David Trotter says he’s found the Carruthers, adding to the list of more than 100 vessels he has located over the course of his career.
Finding The S.S. James Carruthers
Trotter and his team with Undersea Research Associates found the lost shipwreck in May 2025 after five years of searching. They were mapping the bed of Lake Huron with underwater cameras when a “giant hull crawled across the screen,” Trotter’s friend and fellow shipwreck hunter, Brendon Baillod, posted on Facebook on Trotter’s behalf.
“They immediately knew they had found the Carruthers,” Baillod said, “since no vessel anywhere near that size is still missing on Lake Huron.”
Detroit Free Press/YouTubeA diver exploring the wreckage of the massive S.S. James Carruthers.
The 529-foot freighter was upside down on the bottom of Lake Huron beneath 190 feet of water. The Carruthers hadn’t been discovered previously because it was located farther from Michigan’s “Thumb” than anyone expected.
Now that the wreckage has been confirmed to be the Carruthers, 84-year-old Trotter can add the ship to a list of more than 100 others he’s found since the 1970s. He credits his success to his unique method of searching that involves mapping “high probability areas” of the Great Lakes rather than searching spots where he expects a specific wreck to be.
While the discovery of the Carruthers is answering questions that the families of the ship’s crew members have been asking for generations, it was far from the only vessel to sink during the vicious blizzard of 1913.
The ‘White Hurricane’ That Struck The Great Lakes In November 1913
The S.S. James Carruthers was one of a dozen ships that went down during the “White Hurricane” blizzard of November 1913. The freighter was on its way to Midland, Ontario, when the storm hit. It was still new at the time, and the “crew reported that the paint was still tacky in their staterooms,” according to Baillod’s post.
In 2023, Corey Adkins of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society described the storm to the Detroit Free Press as “four days of absolute hell.” Winds reached speeds of 90 miles per hour, and there was virtually no visibility due to the heavy snow.
Public DomainVictims from the S.S. Wexford, another ship that sank on Lake Huron during the 1913 blizzard.
Gale warnings were sent out to all the vessels on the Great Lakes at the time, but for many, it was too late. Ships sank in four of the five lakes, with the most losses in Lake Huron. At least 250 sailors died in the disaster.
All 22 crew members of the Carruthers were killed. The ship was the last remaining of the eight known to have sunk in Lake Huron that day, with the others discovered between 1913 and 2015.
While the Carruthers is the last of the ships from Lake Huron to be located, there are others that went down in the Great Lakes during the storm that have yet to be found. Shipwreck hunters are still searching for the S.S. Leafield, which sank in Lake Superior, and a schooner barge called the Plymouth, which sank in Lake Michigan.
After reading about the wreck of the S.S. James Carruthers, learn about 10 astonishing sunken ships from around the world. Then, go inside the deadly Peshtigo Fire that ripped through Wisconsin in 1873.
