June 2011 Vol 21
2011 SEARCH UNCOVERS WRECK
Dear MSRA members,
MSRA has experienced an amazing
first half of 2011 and is looking forward to an exciting balance of the year. In April, we hosted our biggest event yet. Over 500 people crowded into the Knickerbocker Theatre for the annual fundraiser Mysteries and Histories Beneath the Inland Seas. The results allowed us to move forward with the annual search as well as documentation of the sloop found last year and any new wrecks uncovered this year. As it turned out, the MSRA and NUMA searches each turned up interesting targets that will require examination and documentation.
The Thomas Hume project was
a huge success resulting in a full house at the exhibit opening and debut of MSRA’s
Side scan image by David Trotter
newest documentary on May 21, 2011, the 120th anniversary of the Hume’s sinking. The exhibit continues to run for the balance of the season at the Lakeshore Museum Center in Muskegon, and will be available to travel in next year and beyond. We are so grateful to the Lakeshore Museum Center, our partner in this project. The work of executive director
John
McGarry
and
collections
manager Dani LaFleur was invaluable.
The Hume project also resulted in
a companion book for the exhibit available at the museum, books stores, and through the publisher’s web site. I wish to extend my personal thanks to Bill Lafferty for partnering with me to co-write the book.
With the support of our membership
and several larger donations and grants, MSRA is able to grow, evolve, and continue to develop exhibits, books, documentaries, and educational and entertaining programing. Thank you for all that you do.
Valerie van Heest Board of Directors, MSRA
David Trotter traveled to Holland, Michigan to begin the annual search. After a full evening of equipment loading and provisioning the van Heest’s boat Chinese Takeout, Shipwreck Quest 2011 got underway bright and early on May 28. And that’s when it almost ended! Within 30 minutes, while heading to the search area north of Holland, the boat started running poorly. After a quick diagnosis by Captain Jack van Heest, and a shore team member’s rush to a marina to purchase a new thermostat, the crew started out again. Running five-mile long lanes at two miles per hour in very deep water while towing a side-scan sonar, made for a very long day. The team headed back to shore just prior to sunset and almost made it! About five miles from the dock, the engine died. After determining that onlake repairs would not be sufficient, the crew decided a tow back to shore was in order and called for help. In thirteen years of shipwreck hunting, this was the first time the crew had ever been stranded on the lake. Although not in immediate danger, the hours-long wait for the tow boat, culminated by a slow tow and a 2:00 am arrival at the dock put the resumption of the search in doubt. This proved accurate as the team discovered the boat’s outdrive was, to use a technical term, “toast.” Although a set-back, this was not a bad time for a breakdown because weather forecasts for the balance included high winds and rough water. MSRA sent Trotter back home to wait out the repairs and a good weather-window. Two weeks later, with a borrowed outdrive from R.J. Peterson of Tower Marine in Douglas, Michigan, the team headed back out on the water. Each day, a new crew made up of MSRA volunteers with David Trotter, manned the vessel alternating in captaining, crewing, and side scan duties. This year MSRA is grateful to the crewmembers who included Jack and Valerie van Heest, Craig
NEWS FROM IN-DEPTH EDITIONS The Publishing partner of MSRA Lost on the Lady Elgin wins three awards Valerie van Heest ‘s book received a first place Next Generation INDIE award in the category of History/ Non-Fiction. The INDIE Awards were established to recognize and honor the most exceptional independently published books in 60 different categories each year, and is presented by Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group. The book also won the highest honor--an award of Superior Achievement-from the State of Illinois Historical Society, and placed as a finalist in the Midwest Independent Book Awards. For Those In Peril: Shipwrecks of Ottawa County Michigan is now in its second printing. The book has sold well throughout the Great Lakes region, and is, of course, a best seller in Ottawa County. James Sears Dunham, Chicago’s Forgotten Maritime Man by Thomas J. Lutz will debut this fall. For maritime enthusiasts, this book details the life of a man who shaped the Chicago River helping to grow the city to its current place of prominence. The book contains a detailed index of all the vessels associated with Dunham and his partners. Unsolved Mysteries: The Shipwreck Thomas Hume by Valerie van Heest and William Lafferty was just released. See page 4. Please check out these books and others at in-deptheditions.com.
2011 SEARCH
Con’t
Rich, Larry Hatcher, Neel Zoss, Todd White, Jeff Vos, Bob Underhill, Jim Scholz and Robert Doornbos. In total, we were able to spend seven out of ten days on the water. Finally on the next-to-last search day, a target materialized on the plotter. Returning the next day, the team made several passes alongside and over the target and determined it to be a schooner, approximately 100 foot long, sitting upright in good condition and in very deep water, in fact, the deepest discovery yet made by MSRA. MSRA researchers will attempt to identify the schooner after its technical divers make this very deep dive later this summer. Despite the potential of serious accidents while using heavy equipment on heaving seas combined with bad weather, darkness, and fatigue, MSRA and our NUMA partners, have a tremendous track record of safety and success over 21 major search expeditions during the past 13 years. Human life is certainly much more valuable than any shipwreck discovery and MSRA undertook a number of new safety measures to assure the search crews’ safety this year. An emergency GPS locator unit, a back-up VHF marine radio, new antennas, and various rescue equipment were purchased due to the generosity of our members and major donors. With your continued support, MSRA will fulfill our mission of research, exploration, and documentation of Great Lakes shipwrecks.
NUMA/MSRA FLIGHT 2501 SEARCH LEADS TO AN INTERESTING TARGET Clive Cussler’s search and sonar expert Ralph Wilbanks of the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) arrived in West Michigan in April with team members Steve Howard and Jim Lesto for the eighth season searching for Northwest Flight 2501. Poor weather, including high winds and rough seas, limited the number of days the team could spend on the water and resulted in less-thanusual coverage. The team has searched thousands of acres of bottomland over the years but the lost DC-4 airliner remains elusive. In those years, NUMA has accomplished two major tasks: thoroughly covering a massive area of bottomland between Saugatuck and Benton Harbor where we now know the plane isn’t, and locating the remains of several very important shipwrecks during their search efforts. This year’s search revealed an interesting “twin target” in deep water. When Lake Michigan warms up to bearable temperatures for drysuit-clad technical divers next month, MSRA will investigate the discovery. That this target is a shipwreck is questionable, but as always, our members will be the first to know what exactly this image to the right turns out to be.
MSRA extends its thanks to Clive, Ralph, Steve, and the other NUMA crewmembers who have collectively spent thousands of hours on this project. In addition to the work that has been done, MSRA especially values the friendships developed with these incredible men. Cussler had not intended to continue the search this year, so his return next year is in question, but rest assured MSRA will not give up.
PERHAPS LAKE MICHIGAN’S OLDEST SHIPWRECK As the membership found out more than a year ago, in 2010 NUMA discovered a sailing vessel in very deep water north of south Haven during the 2010 search. An identifying dive by MSRA technical divers revealed a singled-masted vessel called a sloop that had some unusual construction features suggesting it to be very old, perhaps from the early 1800’s. Because of MSRA’s commitment to the Thomas Hume Project (feature article on following spread), no additional survey work was accomplished in 2010. However, when MSRA made a news announcement about this find in late March this year, the story unexpectedly went viral. The Associated Press story reprinted on the next page is one of several newspaper stories. Also, Fox News interviewed Valerie van Heest for a feature story with underwater video which can be seen at www.fox17online.com/news/fox17divers-discover-shipwreck-lake-michigan,0,4207438.story MSRA and its associate member, historian Dr. William Lafferty have been analyzing the video shot of the wreck and soliciting opinions from European vessel historians. Here are a few things that have been said about this shipwreck. “The square stern with what looks like the remains of cabin windows does suggest an early-1800’s date, as does the jibboom alongside the bowsprit; by the mid 1800’s the jibboom was more often above the bowsprit. However, I think I saw a horizontal windlass among the things in the bow which would suggest the vessel was a merchant ship; a warship would have a capstan. “This wreck certainly looks like it’s worth surveying thoroughly at least. I don’t recall there was much action on Lake Michigan during either the Revolution or the War of 1812, another reason to suspect it’s a merchant ship, but of course it could be either Canadian or US.” “Whether British or American, the location feels rather peripheral for that sort of vessel prior to early 1800s, so that “feeling” is more consistent with the “1812” end.” “This may be a major find. It should be pursued.” MSRA will be doing additional dives this summer and plans to pursue partnerships to properly document this vessel.
Side scan sonar of the sloop by Ralph Wilbanks.
The unusual stern of the sloop with two deadlites (windows). Photograph by Robert Underhill
The bow of the sloop Photograph by Robert Underhill
Group reports finding shipwreck in Lake Michigan Wed Mar 30,, 2011 Reprint from Associated Press HOLLAND, Mich. – An organization that documents shipwrecks said it has found the wreck of a 60foot, single-masted sloop in Lake Michigan that may date back to the 1830s while looking for remnants of a plane that crashed into the lake more than 60 years ago. The wreck was found off southwestern Michigan in water about 250 feet deep between Saugatuck and South Haven, Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates announced this week. The discovery was made while working with author Clive Cussler and his sonar operator Ralph Wilbanks of the National Underwater & Marine Agency. The group was searching for the remnants of Northwest Airlines Flight 2501, which crashed into the lake in 1950, killing 58 people. “Sometimes, when you’re looking for one thing, you come across another,” shipwreck researcher Craig Rich told The Grand Rapids Press of the discovery. The vessel sits upright and is in relatively good condition, Hollandbased Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates said. The sloop’s construction and design are consistent with ships built in the 1820s and 1830s. Video of the wreck is expected to be shown April 16 at a social event in Holland. “It’s fascinating stuff,” Cussler, who has worked with Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates to locate other wrecks, told the newspaper. “It’s not the Titanic or anything like that. But it is rather historic just for the era in which it sank.” The ship likely was moving goods across the lake when it went down, Rich said, and it could be the oldest shipwreck discovered by Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates. Rich said the group hopes to identify the ship by the summer and begin researching its story. And the group plans to explore the wreck this year. “If we can put a name to it, we’ll figure out what the story is and, if not, it’ll be a mystery wreck,” he said
PUBLIC EVENT AND EXHIBIT
The efforts of nearly eighteen months all culminated on May 21, 2011 in the grand opening of the exhibit Unsolved Mysteries: The Shipwreck Thomas Hume, and the debut of a documentary film and release of a book both by the same name on the 120th anniversary of the sinking of the Thomas Hume. This project was made possible by a major grant from the Michigan Humanities Council as well as supplemental grants by the Gertz Foundation, Great Lakes Cruising Club, and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Research Foundation. The weather was humid and damp on May 21, 2011, the wind blew strong out of the northeast, and the air carried a hint of rain to come, nearly identical to the weather of 120 years earlier when the Thomas Hume left Chicago to return to Muskegon. Like that night so long ago, people gathered in Muskegon to await the arrival of the schooner, only this year it would return virtually--not physically-through the design of a well-crafted exhibit with historic photographs, underwater video and artifacts similar to those found on the wreck. Over two hundred people gathered at the site of the Hackely and
NEW BOOK AND DVD
On May 21, 2011, the book Unsolved Mysteries: The Shipwreck Thomas Hume by Valerie van Heest and William Lafferty debuted along with the DVD by the same name written and directed by Jack and Valerie van Heest, narrated by Craig Rich and with a musical score by Lee Murdock. The book was sponsored in part by the same supporters as the exhibit and documentary film, but it was not originally planned as a part of the project. However, the authors felt that the magnitude of information obtained from the shipwreck warranted a standalone publication. Part archaeological report and part narrative non-fiction tale, this book details the historic background of the vessel, exposes the mysteries around its sinking, and shows how a shipwreck can reveal those answers. The last chapter provides a very real scenario of the tragic events surrounding the vessel’s and crew’s disappearance. The Association for Great Lakes Maritime History provided a $500 publishing grant toward the book Instead of using that grant toward he publishing as allowed, MSRA elected to provide 20 maritime organizations from the region with complimentary copies of the book for their archives so that this publication would be available to the widest range of people. Order your copies at www.in-deptheditions.com. Each retails for $19.95 or purchase the pair for $36.95.
Hume historic homes to tour the new exhibit from 3:00 to 4:30. The dive team mingled with the public interjecting personal comments and stories about the wreck and their survey work. One visitor noted how this made viewing the exhibit extra special. The Lakeshore Museum Center provided a tent--a good plan considering the light showers that fell for a few minutes that afternoon--and catered a wonderful assortment of food and refreshments. Most of the crowd walked a few short blocks east to the Muskegon Art Museum for the second half of the program. John McGarry, executive director of the museum, served as the program emcee. Folksinger Lee Murdock began the program with a concert showcasing a number of schooner tunes. Then Valerie van Heest set the scene of 120 years ago, drawing comparisons and pointing out differences in Muskegon from the present and 1891. She reminded the group that for this program, they sat just a few blocks from the dock where the schooner Thomas Hume normally tied up. Craig Rich joined Valerie to co-present the documentary Unsolved Mysteries: The Shipwreck Thomas Hume. Written and directed by Jack and Valerie van Heest, the documentary features a music score by Lee Murdock. When the film ended, the audience had a chance to meet all the contributing team members who had worked on the archaeological project, the exhibit and the film. Lee Murdock concluded the evening with a live performance of his song, “I’m Still Here’” written a couple years ago after he first viewed underwater video of the Thomas Hume. His song served to provide a voice for the shipwreck, reminding the audience that although it has not sailed for 120 years, it still exists in the physical world and it still has stories to tell. MSRA would like to thank the following individuals for their participation in the exhibit: Exhibit Design: Valerie van Heest, Lafferty van Heest and Associates. Exhibit Coordination/Installation: Dani LaFleur, Mindy Conley, Lakeshore Museum Center. Video Editing and Production: Jack van Heest, MSRA. Logo Design: Jan Underhill, J. R. Communications. Project Artist: Robert Doornbos. Computer Animation: Jennifer Gustafson, Melissa Anys, Kendall College of Art and Design. Archaeological Directors: John McGarry and Dani LaFleur, Lakeshore Museum Center. Divers: Valerie van Heest,Tim Marr, Craig Rich, Bob Underhill, Jan Underhill, Jack van Heest, Jeff Vos, Todd White, Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates and Tom Palmisano, Jeff Strunka and Bud Brain, Chicago Diving Associates. Underwater Photography: Robert Underhill. The exhibit Unsolved Mysteries runs through October 2011, and is open Wednesday through Saturday from 12-5. Admission is free. Valerie van Heest will present an encore program Unsolved Mysteries: The Shipwreck Thomas Hume, on Saturday October 15, 2011 at 10:00 am. at the Herrick District Library in Holland. She will also be presenting it at the Tri-Cities Museum in Grand Haven in the fall. If you did not make it to the May 21 event, please consider attending one of these programs which will be free to the public.
Thank You for Your Support 13TH ANNUAL EVENT IS A HUGE SUCCESS! The exhibit Unsolved Mysteries: The Shipwreck Thomas Hume will be available for loan to other institutions after its initial run in Muskegon. Interested parties should contact Valerie van Heest at MSRA for rates and scheduling: shipwrecked@chartermi.net MSRA BOARD OF DIRECTORS Valerie Olson van Heest Geoffrey Reynolds Craig Rich Jack van Heest ASSOCIATES William Lafferty, PhD Director of Research
Arthur Allen
Oceanographer, U.S.C.G.
Brendon Baillod Historian/Writer
Dr. Guy Meadows
University of Michigan
Kenneth Pott
Maritime Archaeologist
Dr. David Schwab
Oceanographer, GLERL
Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates, is a Michigan 501(c) 3 nonprofit corporation, whose mission is to Preserve Michigan’s submerged maritime history. To that end, the organization’s work includes research, exploration, documentation, and educational programming regarding historic shipwrecks within Michigan waters, with an initial emphasis on the area off West Michigan. MSRA works in cooperation with State Agencies. As a Hollandbased volunteer-driven organization, MSRA relies on memberships, fundraising events and grants to continue its work.
The 2011 Mysteries and Histories Beneath the Inland Seas annual program at the Knickerbocker Theatre in downtown Holland was a phenomenal success. This event is the largest fundraiser MSRA conducts, providing support for operations, shipwreck hunting, and documentary production, and is presented in partnership with The Joint Archives of Holland. Despite rainy weather, about Photograph by Chriss Lyon 500 people—a record attendance— crowded into this historic venue to hear four presentations on Great Lakes Shipwrecks. Dave Trotter, one of the Great Lakes’ most prolific shipwreck hunters, started the evening with the discovery of the Marion Egan on Lake Huron. Craig Rich followed Trotter with a presentation highlighting four shipwreck tales from his book For Those in Peril: Shipwrecks of Ottawa County Michigan. After an intermission and door prizes, former MSRA board member and northern Michigan resident Ross Richardson told of the loss of the steamer Westmoreland, its rumored cache of whiskey and gold, the various searches over the years, and his discovery of the shipwreck in 2010. The evening culminated with Valerie van Heest’s presentation, Lost on the Lady Elgin, based on her latest book of the same name. Sunk in a horrific collision in 1860, the Lady Elgin went down in Lake Michigan off northern Illinois with over 300 souls. This was the worst maritime disaster on the open waters of Lake Michigan. After the event, MSRA members were invited to join the team and other presenters for an “after party” at Skiles Pizza. MSRA extends its thanks to Hope College and the Knickerbocker Theatre— especially theatre manager Erik Alberg. Appreciation also goes to Geoffrey Reynolds of the Joint Archives of Holland (and an MSRA board member); and all of the MSRA members and others who attended. Because of you, MSRA had a very successful evening while providing a truly educational and entertaining event.
RECENT DONATIONS
In addition to record membership growth in 2011, for which MSRA is grateful, the organization also received the following donations: A corporate sponsorship/ grant from the Gertz Foundation, a $500 grant from the Great Lakes Shipwreck Research Foundation, Sponsoring Memberships from Stan Buell, and Richard Sligh, a Benefactor Membership from Arthur Albin, and a $500 publishing grant from the Association For Great Lakes Maritime History. Thank you to all the members and donors for your generous support that allows MSRA to continue to document Michigan’s maritime history.
RECENT PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Valerie van Heest and Craig Rich represented MSRA at the Ghost Ships Festival in Milwaukee in March presenting Unsolved Mysteries: The Shipwreck Thomas Hume. Valerie van Heest presented that program at Our World Underwater in Chicago in February, Ford Seahorses Film Festival in February, and Shipwrecks in Welland, Ontario, as well as her program Lost on the Lady Elgin. MSRA is funded in part by an annual grant from the Great Lakes Shipwreck Research Foundation, a Wisconsin 501c3 and from a sponsoring grant from the Gertz Foundation.