In 1905, two Lake Superior shipwrecks near Silver Bay and Split Rock showed the force of the lake’s storms. On May 5, 1905, the Hesper was caught in a late spring snow storm, and sixty-mile-an-hour winds drove the wooden hulled steamer far off course onto a reef at the southwest edge of Silver Bay harbor. After pounding on the reef, a giant wave lifted the vessel over it, and the ship broke apart in forty-two feet of water. The fifteen-man crew and Captain E. H. Heaton stayed aboard as long as there was hope of saving the vessel, then launched two lifeboats and pulled away moments before it broke up. The well-preserved wreck of the Hesper lies in about thirty to forty-eight feet of water about halfway down the harbor’s west break wall. On November 18, 1905, the Madeira, in ballast and under tow by the steamer William Edenborn during a terrible storm, was cut loose when the Edenborn’s captain feared for the safety of both ships. He apparently believed the Madeira had a better chance if it anchored and tried to ride out the storm, but it struck Gold Rock north of the present location of Split Rock Lighthouse at about 5:30 a.m. Around the same time, the Edenborn grounded and broke into two four miles away from the community of Split Rock. As the Madeira pounded broadside against a rocky cliff and began to break up, crewman Fred Benson used a rope to guide his shipmates safely onto the cliff. One man died when the first mate was carried down with the sinking ship as he climbed the mizzenmast in an attempt to jump to safety, and the survivors, suffering from exposure, were rescued two days later.