The SS Meteor Whaleback on Barker’s Island is preparing for its seasonal grand opening. Tegan Wendland reports from Superior.

Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society President Steve Daniel helped clean up the 112 year-old Whaleback for next Saturday's opening. He says the SS Meteor is one-of-a-kind and the last of its kind. “That’s the only one in the world that you can go aboard and see. All the others are under water or have been destroyed through scrapping – so here you have a living museum that you can go aboard and see, it’s very historical. These ships were al over the country and they even started building them in Britain but they’re all gone. So this is the only one in the world of this style that’s left.” Daniel says the SS Meteor draws interest from a lot of different people because of its special features and because it hasn’t been damaged like many shipwrecked Whalebacks. “Here’s an example of what the cabin might have looked like, and the pilot house, you know, usually those things are gone when the ship sinks – that’s above so it’s the first thing that blows off. So everything’s in tact, the funnel, everything, so that’s cool. Also this is a tanker, in its latest stage that was kind of the third rendition of the ship and that’s kind of unique to see some of the piping things like that. So that’s to me what’s interesting to see the structure of the ship and a lot of the details.” Superior Captain Alexander MacDougal designed the whalebacks. The S.S. Meteor was launched in Superior in 1896. The SS Meteor opens Saturday May 17 with a free day.

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