March 1, 2010 Vol 18 MSRA Members and Friends, Winter is typically a down-time for most scuba divers as we wait for snow and ice to melt, the sun to finally return and the water to warm up so that we can get out and enjoy our sport, but MSRA has kept quite busy over these cold and snowy months. In January, we received a Michigan Humanities Council Planning Grant for research and development of a larger project to be implemented this coming summer. This work has kept us busy over the last three months. Our own Craig Rich had his new book, For Those in Peril Shipwrecks of Ottawa County published by In-Depth Editions, the publishing partner of Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates. Read about it on page two. Valerie has been working on her fourth book, Lost on the Lady Elgin, the story of the worst disaster that ever occured on the open waters of the Great Lakes. It is due out on September 8, 2010, the 150th anniversary of the accident. Valerie and I spent the first two months putting the finishing touches on “A Tale of Two Schooner, MSRA’s latest documentary. They took it on the road to a number of Midwestern conferences over the last two month’s and it will debut in Holland on April 24th. Additionally, MSRA has been preparing for another two search efforts this coming summer with both NUMA and David Trotter. We are pleased that Clive Cussler has chosen to continue the search for Flight 2501 for at least one more season. Keep your fingers crossed. Lastly, the group is preparing for what is shaping up to be our biggest annual event ever on April 24th when Jim Kennard will travel here from New York to present the story of the discovery of the HMS Ontario, the Great Lakes oldest and most intact shipwreck, in addition to three other great programs. Enjoy Spring!
Jack van Heest
Board Director
What better way to have rung in the New Year than with a grant from the Michigan Humanities Council! MSRA was awarded a grant in January to develop plans for how the organization will deal with the documentation and interpretation of the schooner Thomas Hume in the southern basin of Lake Michigan. An earlier issue of The Explorer discussed the history, and discovery of the shipwreck and the involvement of MSRA in its documentation. In late 2009, MSRA applied for a planning grant from the Michigan Humanities Council, which was received in early 2010. The organization has spent the first quarter of the year researching and making plans for a significant project to take place during the summer of 2011 to study the wreck. In 2008, MSRA completed a major project about the evolution of the self unloaders funded by the Michigan Humanities Council. The project resulted in two awards from the Historical Society of Michigan covering all elements of the grant including the book, Buckets and Belts and the museum exhibit, Shipwrecks, a Deep Look at the Rise of the Self Unloading Freighters, which were completed in collaboration with the Heritage Museum and Cultural Center. For the Thomas Hume, MSRA is planning a similar project using the discovery of the shipwreck to revisit the roots of the lumbering industry so important to the growth of West Michigan, Muskegon in particular. For this project the group will collaborate with the Lakeshore Museum Center, formerly the Muskegon County Museum. The relationship with the Lakeshore Museum Center is very symbiotic. Not only is Muskegon the proper place to exhibit the story of the Thomas Hume because that is its home port, and the museum owns and operates the Hackley and Hume Historic Homes, but the Lakeshore Museum employs two professionals, John Artifacts deep within the Thomas Hume will likely provide new information McGerry, the Execu- about shipboard life on 19th century schooners. Photo by Robert Underhill.
Spring Conferences Attended
MSRA has made and will make presentations at four annual scuba diving and shipwreck conferences: Our World Underwater in the suburbs of Chicago on February 20, The Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival in Ann Arbor on February 27th, Ghostship Festival on March 6th, and Scubafest in Columbus, OH on March 29th. At these events, MSRA has presented the documentary A Tale of Two Schooners and a PowerPoint Program entitled, Southeast Lake Michigan: The new Tech Diving Mecca. Sharing the maritime history of Michigan in these educational and entertaining programs is one of the main missions of MSRA. Additionally, Craig Rich and Valerie van Heest have made a number of presentations to various historical societies and clubs to promote their new books.
Above: Valerie and Jack van Heest, Craig Rich and Ross Richardson presented and exhibited at Ghostships Festival. At right: Bow of the Thomas Hume. Video Capture by Jeff Strunka
Grant Con’t tive Director, and Dani LaFleur, the collections manager, who are both degreed and experienced in Maritime History and archaeology. Through this grant, we have developed the plans for the production of a documentary film as well as a re-cut version suitable for showing in a museum setting. We would also like to develop a museum exhibit for display in the Lakeshore Museum Complex in Muskegon, a curriculum guide, and host a public event on the exact 120th anniversary of the sinking of the Thomas Hume on Saturday May 21, 2011. (Fortuitous that the anniversary falls on a Saturday night!) Mark your calendars now! The history of West Michigan’s lumbering industry has been examined in books and exhibits. One area that has not been as closely looked at is the important role of the lumber schooners and their crews who moved the lumber through the West Michigan region. The American Midwest was literally built from the trees harvested in West Michigan. The Thomas Hume was one of the lumber schooners that sailed from Muskegon Lake. Her story and the personal artifacts that she holds, will provide a unique insight into this important part of American history and the individuals who sailed her. Decades of business documents remain from the Hackley and Hume Lumber Company and from those archives; several letters, like the one below, remind us of the people who sailed on their vessels: From the desk of Thomas Hume May 1891: “We don’t care for the boat; it’s the loss of the captain and men that makes it sad. The captain has been in our employ for twelve years, and was a reliable man and every inch a sailor…. you know him as the man with a deep bass voice. We intend to send a tug out tonight to look for her, and can probably find her if she capsized. I was in Chicago Wednesday, but we have so far had no definite knowledge of her since she left Chicago. Harry had a wife and several children.” During dives to the wreck, the team has observed a large number of personal possessions among the artifacts. This is clearly the best preserved wooden schooner in the lower half of Lake Michigan. The vessel sits upright, and is not embedded in the bottom. It is oriented towards the east and its three masts have de-stepped fallen to the starboard side. The aft deck house is missing, likely forced off by air pressure during the sinking. Two anchors are present at the bow: the starboard wood stock anchor is secure in position and the port anchor has fallen to the lake bottom. The bow spit is intact. A small skiff remains inside the stern, possibly stored there, or sucked in during the sinking. The ship is completely empty and the lower cargo area and deck are completely intact. There is very little zebra mussel buildup on the wreck and virtually no silt inside the vessel. The planning grant has allowed us to develop a script for the documentary film, both long and short version, develop an outline and floor plans for the exhibit, and plans the public event to debut on the 120th anniversary of the Thomas Hume’s sinking. We anticipate using the results of this work to apply for a major grant in the spring to implement the documentary, exhibit, curriculum guide and public program.
Just Released! In-Depth Editions announces the release of For Those in Peril: Shipwrecks of Ottawa County Michigan, by Craig Rich. The lyrics of the hymn Eternal Father Strong to Save pay homage to sailors who risk their lives in the course of everyday work and aptly express the intriguing maritime heritage of Ottawa County, Michigan, a region along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan that saw many a ship and sailor lost. The lakeshore communities of Grand Haven and Holland became thriving commercial ports in the latter half of the 19th century and bore witness to the evolutionary changes in Great Lakes transportation. Early wooden sailing vessels were replaced by wooden steamers, which soon made way for steel vessels, which grew to include today’s “thousand footers.” Schooners laden with lumber and stone gave way to luxury passenger steamships ferrying Chicago’s wealthy tourists to Ottawa County’s grand tourist hotels. Families were changed forever when husbands and sons were lost to the gales of November, and fortunes were lost when vessel owners tried to get just one more trip in before the harsh winters closed the ports. Many of these vessels were simply overtaken by age, mechanical failure or shifting sands. Some broke up on shore while others were refloated to sail again. Some were left to rot at the dock while others simply sailed over the horizon into oblivion never to be seen again. Many now serve as “ice water museums,” attracting scuba divers, explorers and historians to these shipwrecks that comprise an important part of the early history of Ottawa County and the Great Lakes region as well.
You may order a copy of the book direct from the publisher at www.in-deptheditions.com or purchase one at MSRA’s April 24th event.
Coming Soon In the pitch black, rain-swept, early morning hours of September 8, 1860, the sidewheel steamer Lady Elgin, one of the grandest palace steamers on the Great Lakes, broke up and sank in Lake Michigan off the shores of Northern Illinois after a collision with the schooner Augusta, resulting in the worst maritime tragedy on the open waters of the Great Lakes when over 300 people perished. Award-winning author Valerie van Heest draws on an extensive collection of materials amassed by her and fellow teammates during their survey work on the Lady Elgin. The result is a heavily illustrated historical publication, which commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Lady Elgin’s loss, details the tumultuous decade leading to the Civil War and the era in which the palace steamers like the Lady Elgin operated, and provides a comprehensive accounting of the events surrounding her career, her sinking and the aftermath of the tragedy. This book is an important addition to all maritime book collections.
Lost on the Lady Elgin is due on the 150th anniversary of the sinking of this vessel. Read more at: www.in-deptheditions.com.
MSRA BOARD OF DIRECTORS Valerie Olson van Heest Geoffrey Reynolds Craig Rich Ross Richardson 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 education 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 Holland-based volunteer-driven organization, MSRA relies on memberships, fundraising events and grants to continue its work. On March 6, 2010, MSRA learned it had received a 2010 grant from the Great Lakes Shipwreck Research Foundation. Each year in the spring, the organization hosts the Ghost Ships Festival is a conference devoted to Great Lakes Scuba Diving and Maritime History. Exhibits, workshops, and presentations cover just about every aspect of maritime history and Great Lakes scuba diving. Proceeds from the event are given in the form of grants to organizations that support the mission of the Foundation. Kimm Stabelfeldt will attend MSRA’s program on April 24th to present the grant.
MSRA is funded in part by an annual grant from the Great Lakes Shipwreck Research Foundation, a Wisconsin 501c3 Directed by Kimm Stabelfeldt, Brad Friend and Jon Albrecht