WWII bomber recovered from my lake

[nostres]

I consider Lake Michigan "mine" just to be clear. Imagine there is over 200 more planes still in this area of the lake.

Here's the story

Bomber pulled from lake, salvaged for museum - Navy News, news from Iraq - Navy Times

Just wondering Johnny, did Your father in law have anything to do with it?

 

[Jon]

I talked t him about it last weekend and we weren't sure who did it. The story doesn't mention which company it was and he pretty much knows everyone this side of the lake.

When he bought his current boat, about 30 years ago, the original intent was to bring up some of the hundreds of planes sunk down there- his original partner in the venture was a retired Airforce man. Since Great Lakes Naval Academy is right there they have over 60 years of ditched panes to choose from. If you look back through the old Skin Diver magazines from the 60's and 70's you'll see a ton of articles about the local dive clubs bringing them up- as most were quite shallow.

Since the mid 80's it's been illegal to bring up anything more than 50 years old. When I started diving everyone had a crowbar stuck in their weightbelt. These days it's digital cameras. The vis has gone way up over the years, but the once pristine wrecks ar now so covered in mussels you can no longer see any of the details that were once there.

The one thing that didn't make sense to either of us was the reported depth- I think it was put in the article to throw people off. It just doesn't get that deep in that part of the lake- even 20 miles out. If you were in the northern part of the lake, by Fondueset, you could be in 900' of water 20 miles out, but not down by Chicago.

The other big prize down in that area is the WWI German sub that's sunk in deep water out there. There's one salvage company that clams to have the numbers on her and is willing to share them- for $20,000! Lots of secrecy surrounding these types of things.

Jon

 

[cdavis]

Covered in mussels and more than 300 ft deep?

Connor

 

[nostres]

You're right Connor, I just realized it makes no sense as zebra mussels goes down to about 30 ft or less. But then, if it was printing error like 31 ft vs 315ft? why would they use ROV's for salvage job, so much easier for divers to go so shallow... confusing