New Great Lakes wreck found- and dove!

[Jon]

This is a wreck that my father-in-law found 20 years ago. We had been dreaming about diving it for some time, but it never came about- and once I had kids my wife put a hold on all my technical diving. He kept the numbers secret for years, but showed off the bottom graphs to certain interested people.

Finally, he gave the numbers to my freind, Jitka, so that she could take her charter boat out and film it. Some of you may remember Jitka from some of the early Freedive-A-Paloozas. She used to freedive with us before she bought her rebreather. Jitka was a former scuba student who went full force into technical diving. She also used to work as a back-up captain for the shop and is probably why he decided to give the numbers to her.

Here's the full story:

L.R. Doty Shipwreck Discovery

Jon

 

[Old Man Dave]

Nice story and great pictures of the wreck Jon. 300 foot is a deep dive. I assume the lake wrecks stay in good condition for years. Sea wrecks don't last long.

Dave.

 

[Jon]

It's hard to tell because of all the quaga mussels on it, but that's a 110 year old wooden ship under there. Since it's cold fresh water they just don't fall apart like ocean shipwrecks. Before the lakes got hit with zebra/quaga mussels back in the 90's we could dive down on a 150 year old wooden wreck and still see the paint on the walls.

The depth helps preserve them as well. The rule of thumb is that any wreck less 60' deep is a pile of broken beams, but deeper than they they get to be quite intact. Some wrecks still have the sailors floating a round inside of them semi-intact. The cold water turns their skin into soap- the process is called soaponification (sp?). The top deck of this wreck is 298' and the bottom is 320'.

Jon

 

[bbaillod]

Jon is correct.....Jerry published the numbers for this snag many years ago after a commercial fisherman snagged it. He went out to the site and confirmed it with a fish finder. It's very disappointing that Jerry was completely overlooked in the news reports. Without his work, the location would have been lost and this wreck never would have been identified.

 

[Jon]

Nice to have you on the forum Brendon. Are you going to start freediving with us now?

Jon

 

[bbaillod]

Thanks....if I lose 50 lbs.....

 

[Jon]

Talked with my in-laws last night. National Geogrpahic is coming in at the end of the month to film it for one of their specials.

Jon