Maritime Trails '06: Rouse Simmons

[ethanb]

I just returned from Two Rivers, where the Wisconsin State Historical Society Underwater Archaeology group spent a week on the wreck of the Rouse Simmons, the famed "Christmas Tree ship."  The Rouse sank in a storn in November 1912 while carrying a load of Christmas trees from the UP to Chicago.  It's about 150 ft to the rail and 165 to the bottom, so we did one dive per day with a 30-40 minute bottom time.  Keith Meverden, Wisconsin's State Underwater Archaeologist, led the expedition, and the volunteers were Paul Bentley, Ethan Brodsky, Jim Garey, Christa Loustalot, Tom Milbrath, Tamara Thomsen, and Greg Stanton.  Christa, Ethan, and Tom dove open-circuit with trimix, while Tami, Keith, Greg, and Jim used rebreathers (two Megs, a KISS, and a Ouroboros).  As far as I know, this is the first underwater archaeology project in which closed circuit rebreathers were used to study a deep shipwreck in the Great Lakes.

Unfortunately, funding for the daily "Notes from the Field" updates was cut off this year, but I did my own site with some notes and photos from the week.  It's online here:
 
It's still a work in progress, as I'm still waiting on more underwater photographs.

There was also a write-up in the local Manitowoc paper:
 
(which even included a link to my website!)

Enjoy!

Ethan