Historic anchor pulled from Detroit River after 60 years

DETROIT — The 6,000-pound anchor from a massive, historic steamship was pulled from the Detroit River on Tuesday after 60 years underwater.

Greater Detroit was a luxury steamship with a capacity of more than 2,100 passengers. It was a 536-foot-long, 96-foot-wide "floating hotel" that toured the Great Lakes from 1924 to 1950, according to a news release from the Great Lakes Maritime Institute.

Tuesday afternoon, a team of three divers and a tugboat, barge and crane helped remove the bow anchor from the river for display at the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority's office. First the anchor will be cleaned to prevent corrosion.

"This project is similar to the one that was carried out by the (Great Lakes Maritime Institute) in July 1992, when the anchor of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was recovered from the bottom of the Detroit River. That anchor is resting in the yard of the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle," according to the institute.

John Polacsek, with the maritime institute, said the anchor was found in 2005 about 150 feet offshore. He said it takes substantial planning to place such an artifact, before it's pulled from the water.

Dave Mabry, one of the divers who worked on the anchor's removal, said underwater visibility on Tuesday was about 7 feet — which is good for the normally murky river. The divers secured a line to the anchor before it was pulled to the surface.

The Greater Detroit had 625 staterooms with "fine amenities," one of a fleet like "floating works of art, covered with elaborate plaster, hand-carved woodwork, intricate murals and more," according to the news release.

The ships' popularity declined as commercial air travel and the highway system became more widely used, and the Greater Detroit in 1950 was tied up downtown for six years. On Dec. 12, 1956, the anchor was cut, as there was no on-board steam power to raise it, and the Greater Detroit and smaller fleet-mate Eastern States were towed into the river and set on fire.

They were burned "in order to strip all of the elaborate parlor rooms and beautiful wood and make it easier to scrap her hull," according to the news release.