Gates — who worked with the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society — didn’t find the French vessels.
But he did uncover an even older ship, the long-missing tugboat, the Satellite, that sank June 21, 1879, nearly 40 years before the minesweepers. The Satellite was a find that the historical society said last week it was proud to announce.
The search also has thrust Michigan’s shipwreck society — founded in 1978 by a group of divers, teachers and educators to explore shipwrecks — into the national spotlight, and when the TV show’s June 21 episode debuted, it revealed a ship that no one alive had seen before.
