Maritime Trails Project: Oceanwave

[ethanb]

I've been volunteering this week as a Research Diver for the Wisconsin State Historical Society's Maritime Trails project.  We're surveying the wreck of the Ocean Wave, a scow schooner that sank in 1869 (believed to be for insurance fraud).  The wreck lies in 100 ft of water about 2 miles off Whitefish Dunes State Park (Door County).

We spent a couple days up here a few weeks ago making a photomosaic, another day last week putting in a mooring, and this week we're drawing a site plan.

Conditions have been outstanding.  The first week, we had some waves (3-5 ft), but the visibility on the bottom was absolutely the best I have ever seen in Lake Michigan.  I would estimate it at 150 feet, but it's hard to say, since the wreck is only about 75 feet long.  We also did the Daniel Lyons, and you could see the entire wreck at once.  This week, the viz isn't quite so good (50-100 feet, I'd guess), but we've had glass smooth seas. 

At 38 knots on the R/V Dawn Treader, the 11 NM ride from Bailey's Harbor to the wreck goes by in under 20 minutes.  The R/V Orion is a bit slower, but it's great having two boats rafted up on site for a bit more space. 

The only negative is bottom temps in the 39-41 degF range.  It's been tough measuring everything and drawing to scale in the cold, but it's been a lot of fun and I've learned a ton.

I could write pages more about the project, but instead I'm going to post some links to the state's Maritime Trails website.  Keith (State Underwater Archaelogist) writes daily "Notes from the Field" with information and photos.  You can find them at - go to "Participate" and then "Notes from the Field" at top right.

Here's the index:

The index includes all the entries from this year, including the week-long Iris prject in Jackson Harbor (early June), a week on the Oceanwave and Daniel Lyons (late June), and this week on the Oceanwave.  We'll be spending another week in early August on the Daniel Lyons.

Here are links to the pages detailing on our current project:
June 20 (photomosaic)


June 23 (mooring, blown out)


July 7 (mooring)


July 11-15 (survey)




Friday will be posted the morning after

There's a bunch of pictures on these pages, but they're fairly small.  I'll try to get some full-size ones from Tami and post them in this thread later this week.

The Ocean Wave is also written up in the current issue (#19) of Advanced Diver Magazine.

Ethan