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A huge classic car collection sits at the bottom of Lake Michigan

Michigan Public | By Stateside Staff

Published June 13, 2016 at 5:13 PM EDT

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The SS Senator before it sunk into Lake Michigan, 15 miles from Port Washington, Wisconsin.

C. Patrick Labadie Collection

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The SS Senator before it sunk into Lake Michigan, 15 miles from Port Washington, Wisconsin.

C. Patrick Labadie Collection

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The SS Senator before it sunk into Lake Michigan, 15 miles from Port Washington, Wisconsin.

C. Patrick Labadie Collection

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Nash automobiles inside the hull of the SS Senator. The automobiles are outlined in red.

Tom Crossmon/Crossmon Consulting, Inc.

As the country fell into the Great Depression, the SS Senator sunk to the bottom of Lake Michigan.

Late last year, researchers used a remote-controlled submersible to confirm what had been identified as the SS Senator, which rests 15 miles off the Wisconsin shore. The ship sank in 1929 just a few days after the stock market collapse. Its cargo of 268 Nash automobiles from 1929 and 1930 is the largest known collection of its kind in the world.

Tamara Thomson, maritime archaeologist for the Wisconsin Historical Society, joined us to talk about the SS Senator.

GUEST Tamara Thomson is a Maritime Archaeologist at the Wisconsin Historical Society.