Dec. 22, 2010 Vol 19
Dear MSRA members: With another year of research, shipwreck hunting and documentationoriented diving behind us, it’s once again time to switch to indoor activities. Although we are all volunteers, the work never seems to end. It’s a good thing we all love what we do so much! During the winter months, you will find us writing scripts for DVD documentaries, editing video, recording narration, organizing speakers and programs for the annual shipwreck show, preparing presentations of our discoveries for other venues such as the Ghost Ships Festival in Milwaukee, and planning next year’s shipwreck search schedule. In addition to all of that, MSRA’s Valerie van Heest will be designing and installing a major museum exhibit at Muskegon’s Lakeshore Museum Center in time for a planned opening in the spring. This exhibit is scheduled to open on the 120th anniversary of the loss of the Muskegonbased lumber schooner Thomas Hume in 1891. Even as the search for Northwest Airlines Flight 2501 and the elusive Andaste continue, 2010 was one for the record books. Between the joint MSRA expedition with Clive Cussler’s NUMA team, MSRA’s annual search with David Trotter, and dozens of trips to document the wreckage and artifacts on the schooner Thomas Hume, we probably put in more hours on Lake Michigan than ever before. As 2010 draws to a close, we’d also like to thank our major supporters. Please remember that we could not do any of this without your support too. As a 501c-3 nonprofit organization, donations to MSRA are tax deductible. Please consider making a year-end donation of your own! In addition, we appreciate your purchase of memberships and items from the MSRA Store at www. michiganshipwrecks.org or at http://www. cafepress.com/msra. We’ll see you at MSRA’s annual “Mysteries and Histories Beneath the Inland Seas” shipwreck show at the Knickerbocker Theatre in downtown Holland on Saturday, April 23, 2011. Thanks!
Craig Rich
Board of Directors, MSRA
Unsolved Mysteries The Schooner Thomas Hume
On May 21, 1891, the lumber schooner Thomas Hume sailed out of Chicago and into oblivion on a stormy Lake Michigan. The vessel’s owners, lumber barons Charles Hackley and Thomas Hume of Muskegon, Michigan refused to believe their reliable, well-maintained vessel could succumb to a little rough water. They convinced themselves that Captain Harry Albrightson took shelter in a bay or harbor and would soon sail home; after all, the Hume had already made more than 500 successful round trips crossings with no trouble since the company purchased it in 1880. When their schooner did not return, Hackley and Hume sent Captain Seth Lee on the tug Sills to search for it; however, he could find no remnants of the vessel. As the spring turned to summer, the mystery grew. How could a sturdy wooden schooner sink without a trace? A wild and woolly idea arose that perhaps the crew had made off with the schooner, sailed her to some obscure port, repainted her, and changed her name. Then in August, a bottle washed ashore: Inside a note…”we’re taking on water and drifting…notify our friends of our fate.” Fourteen years later a fisherman snagged his nets on wreckage in southern Lake Michigan. Could the wreck of the Hume be lying in shallow water ready to reveal its story? No one knew for sure and the fate of the Thomas Hume lingered as one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the Great Lakes. These questions will finally be solved on May 21, 2011 when MSRA and the Lakeshore Museum Center debut a documentary, exhibit and publication about this most interesting vessel. MSRA divers spent the summer documenting the shipwreck. We have reprinted select dive logs from various days this summer on the following two pages so that you can come along on those dives.
Thomas Hume Dive Log Wednesday June 16, 2010
MSRA End Of Year Party
Nearly 30 people attended the 2011 Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates Member Holiday Party. The annual event was held Saturday December 4, 2010 at the home of Jack and Valerie van Heest in Holland, MI. Besides MSRA board members, attendees included our team of technical divers and their spouses, our Chicago partners in the Thomas Hume shipwreck documentation project, members, donors and others. As usual, there was an abundance of food as everyone brought a dish for the buffet. MSRA partiers feasted on chicken, shrimp, pigs in the blanket and numerous desserts. Adult beverages also were consumed, including some special holiday eggnog! Conversation centered around shipwrecks and maritime history, of course, as team members chatted about recent documentation dives on the Hume, compared notes about upcoming events and shipwreck shows, and watched shipwreck diving videos. Those in attendance also were privileged to see the actual name board from the Andaste, which sank between Grand Haven and Chicago in 1929 (see article). MSRA artist Robert Doornbos brought along preliminary sketches of his dramatic drawing of the Thomas Hume shipwreck which allowed for input from several members of the dive team The get-together is generally held the first Saturday evening in December each year. Watch for details about next year’s event and save the date!
Chicago team Left South Chicago and traveled out to site. They installed a permanent mooring near the bow and cleared off an anchor from last year that had been left on the wreck. They observed that skiff in stern is missing transom and somewhat broken. No name or marking visible. They also theorized that port anchor fell off cathead in the sinking process. Tom Palmisano studied the hanging knees and saw that they were not the typical rounded knee, but a squared off knee made in wood. We will need to take a closer look to see if there were any metal components. The squared off knees would have been used to make more room for lumber. This may have been changed out when the vessel was purchased by Hackley and Hume to switch from general shipment to lumber shipment. We should try to look for any archival information that would support this.
July 10, 2010
Four MSRA divers went to the Hume on Saturday July 10th. Jack van Heest recorded dimensions of the foremost hatch and detailed a section through the ship just forward of the centerboard trunk. On the next dive he will obtain a few extra dimensions and then draw a section. Bob Underhill took photographs of artifacts in stern that have been included in the artifact database. Jeff Vos took video of artifacts in the bow and stern. Most importantly, he discovered a glass plaque that had been mounted to the wall in the galley area that appeared to be glass over a paper drawing or map or informational sign. The center panes were broken with shards of glass beneath it, but the four corners still screwed into the wall were intact. Valerie took a closer look at one of the forward stations covered in a tin-like material. Its reason for the cladding is not yet known, but could be surmised that it was to protect the wood structure member from chafing from the anchor chain.
August 7, 2010
The focus of all team members was to record artifacts. Visibility was extraordinary and ambient light was bright at the bottom. Detailed measurements and photos were taken of seven shoes in the bow, two of which appear to be a pair. The team also began recording items of clothing in the bow, which it was noted are in fairly good condition although the threads that held the seams together have deteriorated, the sections of fabric are somewhat solid. Several pieces of fabric in the bow appear to be a thick wool or heavy cotton canvas material and may represent pieces of an overcoat. Less weighty fabric also existed, but it could not be determined what type of clothing it might have been. The team also observed that what might have earlier been suspected as a bone in a shoe, was indeed a leg, not human, but instead likely the leg of the cast iron stove located along side the show in the upper level of the platform in the forward most end of the bow. Future dives will confirm whether the stove retains the other three legs. Underneath the bow platform, which much resembles a “V” birth in a modern pleasure boats, the team observed a copper teakettle, very intact with only a small dent. It appears to be solid copper with a copper handle wrapped in wood for heat protection. An engraving on the bottom may say PM Co. under that the number 9 was visible, perhaps the last digit of a year? Mosaic by Jeff Strunka and Valerie van Heest
Some members of the team moved to the bow to begin recording more artifact details there. They observed the paint brush in more detail and noted that although the handle had worn almost down to the metal that secured the bristles, the bristles were all intact and solid as if paint had fused them. Nearby were three clumps of a clay-like substance, but each substance had a tint of what appeared to be color in it. Also in the stern, the team observed what appeared to be a cast iron toilet, loose and off mounts, if there had been any.
More observations will have to be made to understand this artifact better and confirm its function and try to ascertain its original position. Divers also noted a large object that
appears to be a scale like those used in modern hardware stores to weigh nails. Again, more detail is needed. Three more shoes were recorded in the stern area, two of which were a pair. Of the ten shoes recorded, most uppers are worn almost down to the sole, or have a portion of the upper leather in place. Two are almost intact with uppers, eyelets, and what must have been a buckle, based on rust stains. Some showed signs of patching on the bottom, suggested that they were worn long and hard. Most all had a heal higher than men’s shoes of today, some as high as 1.5 inches. Of the 10 shoes, one seemed rather small and narrow. The recording of clothes, shoes, stove and teakettle in the bow, suggest that the crew may have used the platform in the bow as sleeping/resting quarters where the stove would have helped keep them warm, and the tea kettle used to prepare tea or coffee. With only seven crew including the Captain, we might be able to assume that the Captain and first mate kept a sleeping area near the galley (typical of those in elevated positions as the stern tends to offer a less bumpy ride) The presence of a bowler hat in the stern may also suggest that this belonged to the Captain. A photo in the book Schooner Passage by Ted Karamanski, shows a schooner captain wearing a bowler hat. The remaining five crew may have shared bow accommodations depending upon their watch. Divers will explore to see if there is any evidence of a mattress or cushion of sorts in the bow.
Mark Your Calendars May 21, 2011
Thomas Hume Documentary Debut in Muskegon
November 7, 2010
MSRA made one last dive on the site as winter weather sets in. Conditions after the big blow of last week we dismal. Waves were rough and the visibility was poor. Still the team was able to take about 50 additional photographs and recorded a number of never before seen artifacts in the bow area. Among them a calking chisel, a leather leg guard, 2 more shoes, a number of buttons, a brass chain, that may have gone with the locket, previously recorded, six coins, two of which were Indian head pennies, and 4 foreign currency, 2 Norwegian cents and an Austrian cent. Most interesting is what appears to be a cobblers shoe form. Also a bowl with name “royal ironstone china Alfred Meakin.�
All Thomas Hume Photographs by Robert Underhill
Thank You for Your Support
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 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.
MSRA wishes to extend deepest gratitude to the following organizations for their major donations or grants in 2010. All of these groups have supported MSRA over the years as indicated. We could not do what we do without them. • • • •
The Michigan Humanities Council 2006-2011 The Gertz Foundation 2009-2011 The Great Lakes Shipwreck Research Foundation 2005-2011 The Great Lakes Cruising Club 2010-2011
Also MSRA wishes to extend thanks to Ben Gebben for donating the name board from the Andaste in the Spring of the year. His father discovered it just days after the ship sank in September 1929. “He was very proud of it,” said Gebben of his father, Gerald, who died three years ago at the age of 89. Gerald sailed his family’s sailboat out of Pigeon Lake a few days after the disappearance of the freighter and found it in shallow water between the sandbars, “It’s something my dad always talked about,” said Gebben. The elder Gebben displayed the artifact until his death. “We were cleaning his house and rather than throwing it away, we wanted to find a permanent home for it,” said Gebben, who lives in Holland. Similarly, MSRA wishes to thank Barbara Mullaly for her donation of a beautiful pencil sketch of the Chicora drawn by her grandfather A.E. Balcom, in the 1920s or 30s. He was not a professional artist but was known within the family for his artistic talent. . Perhaps these artifacts are an omen of discoveries just around the corner! These photographs
appears on the web site and will hopefully one day grace an exhibit on these vessels.
Mysteries and Histories: April 23, 2011