Sept. 2005 Vol 2

The Explorer is a regular publication of MSRA and is distributed via email. For more information visit www.michiganshipwrecks.org

Discovering the S.S.Michigan this June was theculmination of years of researching, side scan searching,plenty of elbow grease, David Trotter’s expertise atinterpreting side scan images, and God’s good grace.

The Michigan is in remarkablygood shape considering thecircumstance of her sinkingand the length of time she hasspent in her ice water tomb.MSRA affiliate technical divers,Todd White, Jeff Vos and BobUnderhill have seen a raredouble wheel, smoke stack,wood stock anchors, ship’sbell, and the steam whistle.The video stills at right, weretaken by Todd White and showthe ships two most prominentfeatures, the anchor and shipswheel.

The Michigan’s cabins and pilot house were likely intactwhen she hit the bottom andbased on their current position,we can conclude that theyprobably collapsed over thedecades spent underwater.

Several of the side cargodoors into the Michigan’s holdare open, perhaps by crewwhen they abandoned ship.Three levels of decks areaccessible to divers, althoughpenetration is a dangerousundertaking. Divers report thecargo deck empty, as wouldbe expected of this ship,whose sole mission was to rescue another trappedvessel, the Oneida.

MSRA’s divers have been treated to visibility over 50 feetand enough ambient light to make their way around the

wreck, which sits in 275 feet of water. The only thingthat obscures their prying eyes from all the details ofthe wreck are the very things that are responsible forclearing the water- the thick layer of zebra mussels.

The zebras coat the remains of thehurricane deck roof and the sidesof the ship, hiding important detailand artifacts on the wreck. Zebramussels entered the Great Lakesin the early 1990’s and have beenable to survive at deeper anddeeper depths, as is evidenced bytheir presence on the Michigan.

While diving the Ann Arbor No. 5this summer, (story on next page)we encountered incrediblevisibility, over 70 feet, no doubt dueto the Zebra mussel infestation.From the surface we could see

down 50 feet and watch divers doing their deeper stops.The question is, what is the long term effect of thisinvasive species and what effect would other invasive

species have on the Great Lakes?

Could you imagine what wouldhappen to our wooden steamersand schooners in a fresh waterwood borer invaded our lakes?How about the dreadedsnakehead fish? The snakeheadfish is a large, very aggressive fishthat might be hostile towardsdivers.

We really don’t now how newspecies entering our lakes aregoing to change the wrecks off ourcoast or scuba diving, but it will

probably have an effect on them in a negative way.That is why it is important to locate our local wrecksand document them as quickly as we can, because wemay not get that chance in the future. Article submitted by Ross Richardson

Letter From the BoardMembers and Friends,

The 2005 search season has been anunprecedented success. There havebeen so many years since we began ourannual shipwreck searches in 1998where we have nothing to show exceptmiles and miles of empty bottomlands.While we have always kept a positiveoutlook knowing that lots of coveragemeans we know where the shipwrecksAREN”T located, it has been adisappointment for the team.This yearwas certainly different. We have madenot one, But TWO new shipwreckdiscoveries!

The Ann Arbor No. 5 was discovered byClive Cussler’s NUMA team and MSRA inthe course of searching for the lost Flight2501 off South Haven

The SS Michigan was found by MSRAworking with David Trotter in our thirdseason of covering bottomlands offHolland specifically in search of thisvessel whose loss bears similarity to thatof Ernest Shakelton’s vessel Endurancein 1912 in Antarctica.

MSRA divers and an affiliate team oftechnical divers has explored the twovessels in depth. (no pun intended!) Whatwe are seeing underwater adds detailsto our knowledge of the two sinkingswhich took place miles and decadesapart. Each ship is offering us newinsights into the construction of thevessels and their ultimate demise.

While the NUMA/MSRA team did notdiscover the remains of Flight 2501, CliveCussler has assured us that he will besending Ralph Wilbanks and his team backfor a third attempt at finding the crashsite. Since the debut of our documentaryon Flight 2501, MSRA has receiveddozens of calls from witnesses, peopleinvolved in the search and recovery andeven the son of one of the victims.Information gleaned from interviews withthese people has helped us develop arevised search area for next May. Weare very hopeful that there will be adiscovery in 2006. We also would like tospearhead the placement of a memorialmarker dedicated to the individuals wholost their lives in this tragedy.

Valerie van Heest

The SS Michigan FinalResting Place Revealed!The SS Michigan FinalResting Place Revealed!

MSRA Board of Directors

Jan MillerValerie Olson van HeestCraig RichRoss RichardsonJack van HeestGeoffrey Reynolds

M i c h i g a n S h i p w r e c k R e s e a r c hAssociates , is a Michigan non-prof i tcorporation, whose mission is to PreserveMichigan’s submerged maritime history.To that end, the organization’s work includesresearch, exploration, documentation andeducation regarding historic shipwrecks withinMichigan waters, with an initial emphasis onthe area off West Michigan. MSRA works incooperat ion with State Agencies. As aHolland-based volunteer-driven organization,MSRA relies on memberships, fundraisingevents and grants to continue its work.

Join MSRA$25 Annual Individual MembershipIncludes 1 free admission to Mysteries and Histories event,daily search emails and MSRA newsletters.$50 Annual Family MembershipIncludes 2 free admissions to Mysteries and Historiesevent, daily search emails and MSRA newsletters.$100 Supporting MembershipIncludes 2 free admissions to Mysteries and Historiesevent, daily search emails and MSRA newsletters,plus a complimentary documentary in video or DVD.$250 Supporting MembershipIncludes 2 free admissions to Mysteries and Historiesevent each year, daily search emails and MSRAnewsletters, plus two complimentary documentaries invideo or DVD.$500 Sustaining MembershipIncludes the above plus the opportunity for you to join theMSRA search crew on a side scan expedition for one dayduring the June 2005 “Wreck Quest”.$1,000 Lifetime MembershipIncludes the above plus opportunity for you and a friend tojoin the MSRA search crew on a side scanexpedition for one day during the June 2005 “Wreck Quest”.

To join, please send your check, made out to MSRA,to the address at the left. Please indicate if you planto attend the event on May 7th, and how many ticketsyou need held for you.

Mark Your CalendarsMay 6, 2006

Knickerbocker Theatre86 East Eighth St. 7:00

Please join MSRA and the Joint Archives ofHolland as we present Mysteries andHistories, An Evening Beneath The InlandSeas, MSRA’s annual event.

The Evening with feature programs on thenewly discovered wrecks off West Michiganas well as a few surprises. Details willfollow in the new year.

MICHIGAN SHIPWRECKRESEARCH ASSOCIATES

1134 Goodwood Ct.Holland, MI 49424www.michiganshipwrecks.org

Associates

Brendon BaillodHistorian/Writer

Dr. David SchwabOceanographerGLERL

Arthur AllenOceanographerU.S. Coast Guard

Kenneth PottMaritime Archaeologist

Kimberly E. MonkMaritime Archaeologist

Clive Cussler Doesn’t Give Up

With four railroad tracks and a capacity of 30 railroadcars, she was a behemoth. For 55 years, the Ann ArborNo. 5 worked the Great Lakes until, like all car ferries,she outlived her usefulness. She was sold to BultemaDredge & Dock Company in 1967 for $27,775, cut downand used as a temporary break wall at Palisades NuclearPower Plant near South Haven from 1967-1969.

From there, the story takes an unusual turn. Whilepublished reports all confirm that the ship was brokenby the ice during the winter of 1970 and scrapped thefollowing spring, MSRA now believes the vessel had avery different demise.

A Holland man contacted MSRA with a story that explainswhy about 1/3 to 1/2 of the ship now lies ten milesoffshore from the nuclear plant. He reports that thevessel did not break up, but rather, suffered a “brokenback” while under tow to Manitowoc for scrapping inthe spring of 1970. Furthermore, he reports havingwatched a home movie of the sinking! This certainlyexplains why only a portion of the vessel has beenlocated. MSRA is attempting to obtain that video.

We believe that the “AA5” was discovered by CaptainRichard Race in the 1980s during his own search forf light 2501. The location never was revealed until MSRAreleased the information to the diving public in July 2005.We can all thank Clive Cussler, Ralph Wilbanks and theNUMA team for this very exciting new dive site in WestMichigan. Article Submitted by Craig Rich

Finding the wreckage of the Ann Arbor no. 5 in May 2005was unexpected! We had already spent several weekssearching for the remains of Northwest Airlines Flight2501 with Ralph Wilbanks from NUMA, when the sidescan sonar revealed a large shipwreck ten miles offSouth Haven. These were obviously not the remains ofthe airliner, but did turn out be a significant historicalwreck and an extremely interesting scuba diving site. The first divers sent to investigate the wreck were JeffVos and Bob Underhill, technical diving affiliates of MSRA.They verified the wreck was that of a barge, but one thathad been cut down from a railroad car ferry. This is madeevident by the sets of railroad tracks on the deck. Theyreported two massive propellers and a gigantic rudder— made all the more dramatic by the fact that the “AA5” issticking up out of the bottom of the lake at a 30-degreeangle! While the fantail is accessible at a depth of 120feet, the forward portion of the wreck plunges beneaththe clay bottom at 160 feet.

Jeff Vos made the f irst“penetration” dive to explorethe interior of the wreck andreported that the propellershafts are housed inside large“tunnels”, which are anunusual design featureunique to the “AA5”. Thisfeature enabled the ship’s“hold” in the stern of thevessel to be f looded forballast. Since that time MSRAdivers, Craig Rich, RossRichardson, Jack and Valerievan Heest, and MSRAaffiliate, Todd White, have

extensively documented the site. Todd has provided theimage seen here as well as those on MSRA’ s web page.

The vessel was built by the Toledo Shipbuilding Company.She was 360' long and at the time of her launch inNovember 1910, she was the largest ferry on the lakes.

A Surprising Discovery!

May 2006 Will see the return of Ralph Wilbanks and SteveHoward, NUMA’s chief search team, to West Michigan,thanks to the persistence of Clive Cussler, who rarelyever gives up on his quest for lost ships, planes andtrains.

MSRA has been assembling an increasing load ofresearch including numerous witness accounts. This newinformation is helping to refine the search area to bringus closer to finding Northwest Flight 2501.