New wreck

[FreediveWI]

Since he's decided to start telling people about it I guess it's safe to say that my father-in-law, Jerry Guyer, has found another new wreck.

After countless hours with the side-scan sonar has has now found both the BOND and the RELIABLE, both sunk off of Milwaukee.

He will be giving a presentation about it next spring during the Ghost Ships' Fest.

I am sure that charters to it will start next summer.

Jon

[jasondbaker]

Jon, do you have any details about these two wrecks? Vessel type, reason for loss, depth, etc. Congrats to Jerry.

[FreediveWI]

One was a sand dredge and I am not positive about the other one. Both are within easy freediving range and both, now, have moorings on them.

I forgot how one was ost, but the other one sunk and was reported to have her boiler explode upon sinking.

Jerry would have the rest of the details during his presentation.

The one wreck, that he found a few years ago, we've used to do open water check-out dives on. It works out great for dives 3 and 4 because there is a nice hard, sand bottom and usually good vis. In July and August it also has warm water to make things more enjoyable for the students.

Jon

[Vtach]

I believe the shallower one (check out dives)that you are speaking of Jon is the Bond. Chris, Sean, Paul, Gert and myself dove that wreck while preparing for the Advanced Nitrox and Deco Procedures class. It seemed to be a pretty decent shallow wreck. Pretty much flattened but quite a bit a machinery to be seen. I really did not get much time to poke around and look at things, we were too busy working on S-drills, valve drills, air shares, etc........fun stuff ;D

Todd

[FreediveWI]

The one you were on is now thought to be the RELIABLE and the new one appears to be the BOND.

As one goes through the research more details come out and names can be changed. A good example of this is the Dredge #6 which what thought to be the Dredge 906 for some time because it was written down incorrectly in a varitey of books. Another good example is the "Murray Bay" wreck in Munising. I think that I have heard at least 3 different names for that wreck.

There are lots more out there to be found, but the bottom topography off of Milwaukee makes it more difficult to find wrecks than in other Great Lakes. I can't tell you how many times we've been back and forth over an area with a side scan which clearly shows a ship on the bottom, only to find a clay mound shaped just like a boat hull, or a boulder bigger than the boat!

Other lakes, like Huron, have a flat mud bottom that really makes the wrecks stick out on sonar, Michigan has some pretty wild, and very interesting, bottom structure to it. This makes things much more difficult.

One other thing that lies not to far away from the wreck you were on is the remenants of an underwater forrest that dates back, if I can remember this right, to about 10,000 years ago. Jerry found that on a scooter survey.

Jon

[Vtach]

Thanks for the clarification on that one Jon, now I'm looking forward to diving another new local wreck. The more the better! ;D

[Omicron]

That's pretty cool - I'm definitely going to have to make it down to Milwaukee sometime and check out some of those shipwrecks. That's got to be a pretty neat feeling finding a new shipwreck!!!

[scubert]

Well, now I'm going to have to go back and change the entry in my dive log