Great Lakes Shipwreck Research Methods
Brendon Baillod
One
of the most interesting aspects of wreckdiving is
learning the story of a vessel and its subsequent accident before diving
it. Sometimes this involves reading a
book or talking with a dive charter captain to learn a little about the wreck’s
history. However, so many wrecks litter
the Great Lakes that divers often find little or no
information about many of the wrecks they visit. Very few Great Lakes
marine accidents were widely known prior to the publication of contemporary Great
Lakes marine history books by Dwight Boyer and Dana Thomas
Bowen. Prior to their books, most Great
Lakes shipwrecks were little more than the faded memories of oldtimers. Recently,
numerous authors and divers have begun researching and publishing accounts of
obscure Great Lakes shipwrecks. Uncovering the stories behind Great
Lakes ships and their accidents has become an exciting and
fascinating avocation for many Great Lakes divers and
new wrecks are being found every year by divers who spend time in the library
as well as in the water.
Two
terms shipwreck researchers should be familiar with are “primary” and
“secondary” resources. Primary
historical resources are usually first or second hand reports of an accident which
were gathered or published at the time of the accident, while secondary
resources are generally the published work of researchers who have collected
data from primary resources. Secondary
resources are often a good starting point for establishing the existence of a
wreck or accident. Primary resources however, are essential for discovering new
historical wrecks or fleshing out fragmentary information on existing wrecks.
Before turning to primary resources, it is a good idea to check all secondary
resources to make sure you are not conducting redundant research.
Many
primary and secondary resources for Great Lakes
shipwreck research are listed in Chuck and Jeri Feltner’s
1982 book Great Lakes Maritime History: Bibliography and Sources of Information. Their book is an important guide for Great
Lakes shipwreck researchers and lists nearly all the important
works and major repositories for Great Lakes nautical
history up to 1982. Another very
important secondary resource is the ongoing research of historian
David
Swayze. His 1991 book Shipwreck!
lists data on almost 4000 Great Lakes
shipwrecks, and his ongoing research has since grown to include perhaps twice
that number. Any wrecks that are not in
David
Swayze’s Wrecklist are truly obscure. Other important resources are the collections
of research libraries such as the Milwaukee Pubic Library’s Herman Runge Collection, the Canal
Park Museum
at Duluth, the
Institute for Great Lakes Research at Perrysburg,
Ohio and Detroit’s
Dossin
Great
Lakes Museum. These libraries boast massive indices and
catalogs containing photos and history on many thousands of Great
Lakes vessels. Many of
these indices are now computerized for quick research and a few are even
available on-line via the internet.
Other important secondary resources are books by local and regional
authors. Aside from the obvious books
about Great Lakes shipwrecks, many obscure, self
published books on local history list excellent shipwreck information. County, city and regional historical societies
are also excellent resources for information on obscure local vessels.
Other
very important sources for Great Lakes shipwreck
information are the various vessel registers and directories produced in the
latter 1800s by insurers and the government.
In 1867 the Treasury Department began producing a yearly directory of US
Merchant Vessels. These
directories, which are still produced today in electronic form, list various info, depending on the year, including tonnage, year built,
builder, year built and lost and many other demographics for Great Lakes vessels. Another important directory is the Inland
Lloyds Register. Inland Lloyds
cataloged insured vessels and published a yearly listing of all Great
Lakes vessels that were insured beginning in 1856. These directories also list many demographics
and often contain information on obscure vessels that can be found nowhere
else. Other important registers which
list information on Great Lakes vessels are the Beeson’s
Marine Directory (1887 - 1921), Green’s Marine Directory (1908 -
1954) and Polks Marine Directory (1880s,1890s). Many other
directories exist for Great Lakes vessels of the early
1900s and are mentioned in Feltner’s
Bibliography.
The
best primary resources for information on Great Lakes
shipwrecks are commercial and sport fishermen.
They know where their nets and lines snag and often keep LORAN numbers
on notorious snags. More wrecks have
been found through the reports of fishermen than by any other means. The second best primary resources are
newspapers. As early as the 1820s,
newspapers ran columns devoted exclusively to Great Lakes
marine news. These papers carried word
of all known accidents, regardless of severity and usually reported all salvage
work on wrecks as well as vessel movements in and out of major ports. Many of these papers have been preserved on
microfilm as far back as the 1820s and are now extremely valuable sources for
archival information. Among those papers
which reveal the most information on Great Lakes wrecks are the Milwaukee
Sentinel, the Lake Superior Journal, the Duluth
Minnesotian, the Marquette Mining Journal,
the Chicago
Inter-Ocean, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Buffalo Morning Express, Oswego Herald
and the Detroit Free Press.
Numerous other community newspapers also carried news of shipwrecks if
they occurred in the area. Today, the
repositories for these newspaper microfilms are local and regional
libraries. Researchers who wish to make
use of newspapers must however, know at least the year, and preferably the date
of an accident. Without a date,
researchers have the thankless task of reading through months and even years of
newspapers in order to find perhaps one cryptic entry. However, researchers who have been forced to
do this are often rewarded by finding accounts of other previously unknown
wrecks.
Perhaps
we know only the name of a vessel and have no idea when she wrecked. We have checked all known secondary resources
and they don’t list her. We might then
look at the vessel’s “enrollment” records.
Sometimes referred to as a registry or certificate, a vessel’s
enrollment certificate is like a birth certificate. Beginning around 1812, all American merchant
vessels on the Great Lakes were required to carry a
Certificate of Enrollment issued by customs houses at major ports. Beginning in 1867, all merchant vessels were
also assigned an “official number” when they were enrolled. An official number is like a fingerprint
which stayed with a vessel throughout her life even if her name changed. Official numbers are particularly useful in
identifying the many vessels which changed names multiple times and in
identifying multiple vessels with common names such as the many vessels named
“Mary” or “Ann.”
When
a vessel was first launched, she was given an enrollment certificate and had to
surrender it and get a new one any time she changed tonnage, dimensions, rig,
owners, captains, home ports, or was wrecked.
Certificates of Enrollment give a tremendous amount of information about
a vessel. They list her owner, master,
builder, gross and net tonnage, official number (before 1867), dimensions, rig,
year and place built, type of stem and stern, date and place of current and
previous registry and reason for surrender of certificate. These vessel enrollments have been preserved
by the National Archives and are available on microfilm at several research
libraries in the midwest. It is through vessel enrollment certificates
that we know the names of many historic Lake captains as well as the dimensions and description of many
historic vessels.
The
enrollments for many Great Lakes ports have been
compiled into chronological indices which list dates and places of subsequent
enrollments as well as the reasons for subsequent surrendering of certificates. Using these indices it is possible to trace
the entire career of a Great Lakes vessel. We can find each time she was sold and to
whom, who all her captains were, when and if she was rebuilt or rerigged, if she changed home ports or names, and most
importantly, when and if she wrecked.
Finding a vessel enrollment that was surrendered as “vessel lost,”
“abandoned” or “wrecked” indicates that the vessel probably never sailed again. It also gives us an idea of the year and
possibly the month that the vessel was lost.
However, some owners and captains waited months and even years to
surrender a vessel’s papers, while holding out hope for salvage. Subsequently, surrendered enrollments can
give only an estimate of when the vessel wrecked, but they also provide a great
deal of vessel information and can save a good deal of time searching through
newspapers.
Another
important primary resource for information on Great Lakes
shipwrecks is the US Lifesaving service.
In 1874 the US Government established many Lifesaving Stations on the Great
Lakes in response to the appalling loss of life caused by
shipwrecks. Staffed by well trained and
fearless crews, these stations kept regular watches and responded to any
reports of marine accidents regardless of the weather. Using only small surfboats, these “storm
warriors” often lost their own lives trying to save those of shipwrecked
sailors. The harrowing accounts of their
daring rescues have been preserved by the National Archives and are both
fascinating and dramatic. The Station
Keepers were responsible for recording the handwritten accounts of each call
the crew went out on, and these are now available at selected research
libraries in the midwest. Abbreviated versions of these accounts are
also available in the printed hardcover Annual Report of the US Lifesaving Service,
which runs from 1876 - 1914.
Often
overlooked as primary resources for shipwreck information, archival and modern
maps and charts commonly show the location of shipwreck remains. Many old ships were abandoned in harbors and
waterways without a second thought and their identities have since faded into
history. Their remains however,
sometimes offer unparalleled wreckdiving and
excellent opportunities for archeological investigation. Older charts in particular are likely to show
the location of long forgotten wrecks and many research libraries have map
collections dating back to the early 1800s.
Probably
the most important historical work ever written about the Great
Lakes was John Brandt Mansfield’s 1899 epic History of the Great Lakes. This rare two volume series is simply
unbelievable in the amount and scope of information it contains. Mansfield
attempted to list every vessel that ever sailed the Lakes before 1899, as well
as every shipwreck. The result was a
massive index which preserved historical information on many obscure vessels
that would have otherwise been lost.
These volumes have become standard research tools for Great
Lakes historians and aside from vessel enrollments, are one of the
best sources for information on Great Lakes vessels of
the 1800s.
When
conducting research into shipwrecks it is also important to contact other
divers. More than a few divers have
spent long hours searching for a “virgin” wreck only to find that local divers
had been visiting it for years. Divers
today are increasingly willing to share wreck locations with other responsible
divers. In this regard, it may be
valuable to attend some of the annual meetings and conferences where Great
Lakes wreckdivers and historians
gather. The annual Gales of November
Conference at Duluth, Minnesota is a great place to network with other divers,
as are Chicago’s annual Our World Underwater Conference and Milwaukee’s Ghost
Ships Festival. The premier event of
this sort is probably the Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival hosted annually by the
Ford Seahorses dive club in the Detroit
area. It has been held for over 20 years
and attracts thousand of divers and researchers each year. It is also very helpful to become involved
with one of the many volunteer organizations for Great Lakes
wreckdivers.
Such organizations have developed to assist State and Provincial
Underwater Archeology efforts and to maintain and monitor underwater
preserves. The Wisconsin Underwater
Archeology Association, the Underwater Archeology Society of Chicago, Save
Ontario Shipwrecks and Preserve Our Wrecks are examples of active organizations
involved in research and preservation of submerged historic and cultural
resources. They offer many opportunities
for divers to receive training in Underwater Archeological survey methods and
to network with other divers and historians.
Believe
it or not, the internet is also rapidly becoming an excellent resource for Great
Lakes shipwreck divers and historians. Many websites are available that list locational and historical information on wrecks. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Research Website is
an important hub for researchers seeking a central starting point. Some research facilities have also placed
their catalogs online in searchable databases.
The Milwaukee Public Library recently placed the index to its Great
Lakes Marine Collection online. Another
online database that is interesting is the NOAA Submerged Obstruction Database,
which contains LON/LAT coords for many unknown
obstructions. This database however, is
rather difficult to use and contains a lot of inaccurate information. The Marine
Museum of the Great
Lakes at Kingston has
placed several databases online including its file on Canadian vessel
enrollments. Save Ontario Shipwrecks has
also placed several large databases online in its Marine Heritage Database.
The main sites used by Great
Lakes maritime history researchers are as follows:
- Great Lakes Shipwreck Research
– A main hub for locating other Great Lakes
maritime history and diving websites.
Features an online newsgroup, bookstore, dive and research
directories as well as regional content devoted to Lake
Michigan and Superior
shipwrecks. http://www.ship-wreck.com
- Walter Lewis’ Great Lakes Maritime History Site – The
most important online repository for archival documents and vessel
enrollments. Currently contains
several important archival vessel registers as well as an online database
of all Great Lakes vessel enrollments prior to
1861. http://www.hhpl.on.ca/GreatLakes/
- Maritime
Museum
of the Great Lakes at Kingston
– Excellent online databases for Canadian vessel enrollments, Steamship
lists, archival news articles. http://www.marmus.ca
- The David Swayze Wrecklist – The most important online repository for Great
Lakes shipwreck data in existence. Several thousand wrecks are listed with
complete demographics and details.
References are cited and wrecks are meticulously researched. http://www.boatnerd.com/swayze/shipwreck/
- Milwaukee
Public Library Great Lakes Marine Collection – The
Library’s catalog includes the 8,000 Vessel Files in the Great
Lakes marine collection.
The text of the vessel files can be accessed online. http://www.mpl.org