Shipwrecks in the Great Lakes

M I L W A U K E E, Jan. 2, 2003 -- Like tourists in an underwater museum, diversin the Great Lakes explore shipwrecks searching for remnants ofclothes, containers of food or even floating human remains.

Divers say it's becoming a popular hobby to journey into thethousands of schooners, steamers and other sunken ships embedded inthe depths of the Great Lakes.

"It's kind of like exploring a haunted house underwater," saidMichael Haynes, who teaches diving lessons in Menomonee Falls."You start to imagine what it was like aboard that ship. You'retouching history."

Although shipwrecks are often associated with oceans, the GreatLakes hold an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 sunken ships. About 1,000Great Lakes shipwrecks have been identified, and about 10 new shipsare discovered annually.

Divers say the five Great Lakes are one of the top places in theworld to see shipwrecks because their frigid freshwater preservesships better than the ocean's corrosive saltwater. The lakes —Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior — are located inMinnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio,Pennsylvania and New York.

"It's magnificent exploring," Haynes said. "The sport isdefinitely growing."

Lakes as Freeways

More than a century ago, the Great Lakes served as the nation'sfreeways, teeming with ships carrying people and goods throughoutthe Midwest.

Not every ship reached its destination.

Paul Creviere Jr., author of Wild Gales and Tattered Sails,said most Great Lakes wrecks are 19th- and early 20th-centurycommercial ships.

Creviere said storms, fire and human error caused most wrecks.Sometimes, he said, captains intentionally sunk aging ships tocollect insurance money.

He said much of the iron, wood, beer, butter and other cargooften stayed with a ship's wreckage.

"A shipwreck is like a crime scene," Creviere said. "If youknow how to read the clues, you have a drama right in front ofyou."

Learn Diving in Two Weekends

Gert Grohmann, co-owner of Deep Blue Dive Center in Milwaukee,said improved equipment and better training have made divingaccessible to a wider audience of teens, the elderly and even thephysically handicapped.

Grohmann said it took three months to get his diving license in1977. Today, he said it takes as little as two weekends.

"Ten years ago there was a very dedicated but small group ofdivers," he said. "What you're seeing now is a lot of newfaces."

People are also better able to find wrecks as Web sites list thelocations, description and difficulty of diving in individualshipwrecks.

Suggested Dives

Divers say each wreck is unique and can range from the skeletonof the century-old Appomattox to the timbers of a 70-year-old ferrythat was lost in a storm.

One of the most popular Great Lakes diving sites is the PrinsWillem V, which went under 50 years ago near Milwaukee. It sunkafter colliding with a tugboat that left a 20-foot hole in itsside. Today the wreckage is easily accessible in less than 90 feetof water.

Another favorite site is the Rouse Simmons, a 200-ton schoonerthat went under near Sheboygan in 1912. The boat disappeared in astorm while delivering Christmas trees from northern Michigan toChicago.

The ship, discovered in 1972, still holds its Christmas treecargo. A musical called "The Christmas Schooner" based on thisstory is often staged near the holidays.

For years, divers erased such stories by scavenging the wrecksfor personal trophies. That's now illegal.

"When I started diving it was the manly thing to come up with aprize, or else you weren't much of a diver," said Dick Boyd, whohas been diving in the Great Lakes for 50 years. "Now you takephotos, not souvenirs." Though he leaves most wrecks intact, Boyd, of Madison, oncepounced on a century-old crock of spreadable cheese found in a LakeMichigan wreck. The retired microbiologist couldn't resist testinga sample in the lab.

First he rinsed the black silt away and tried a bite.

"I just wondered what the heck a sailor's snack from the 1800swould taste like," he said. "It didn't taste too good."