Apr 30 2008
Maritime/Diving News
The Marquette Mining Journal has a story about a grant to help restore the Marquette Harbor Lighthouse:
The museum was recently awarded a $296,000 “Save America’s Treasures Initiative” grant that it will use to renovate the Marquette Harbor Lighthouse. Included in the project will be restoration of the second floor of the lighthouse to what it looked like in 1910 when Otto lived there while he was second assistant to the lightkeeper.
The current lighthouse was built in 1866 and a second story was added in 1909. The lighthouse played a vital role for the area during the mining boom of the late 19th and early 20th century.
“Because of the relationship of the harbor lighthouse to the iron ore trade — for many years Marquette being the premiere iron ore port on the Great Lakes — that was the vital single aid in navigation on the Great Lakes for those ore freighters, coming and going,” Stonehouse said.
http://www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/507926.html
The Port Huron Times Herald has a story about the museum ship, the Bramble:
It took more than 60 years for the Bramble to end up where it is. In 1943, the Zenith Dredge Co. built the ship in Duluth, Minn., and it was commissioned by the Coast Guard on April 22, 1944.
In the second half of the 20th century, the Bramble helped make history.
From July to October 1947, the ship participated in tests determining an atomic bomb’s effect on ships. Called “Operation Crossroads,” the Bramble sat 20 miles away from a detonation site and had to be extensively scrubbed after the tests because of the atomized steam that settled on the ship.
In 1957, the Bramble became one of the first surface ships to circumnavigate North America.
On the trip, sailors lounged on Florida beaches; cut through the Panama Canal; coasted around Alaska; broke through Arctic Ice on the Beaufort Sea; and made it back home again within about four months.
The Bramble finally settled in Port Huron in Sept. 1975, after a major renovation involving rebuilding engines and modernization.
Aside from its normal duties — aiding navigation, search and rescue and icebreaking — the ship enjoyed a settled life in the Great Lakes.
It made one last hurrah when, for about five months in 1987, the ship performed law enforcement duties in the Caribbean, at one point seizing a vessel with three people and 50 tons of marijuana aboard.
The Bramble is one of the museum’s four sites and is open seasonally for tours. The first tours of the year were given Thursday.
The Port Huron Museum has just acquired an anchor from one of Roald Amundsen’s ships:
It’s not just any anchor. It’s an anchor that came from one of Roald Amundsen’s boats, the Gjoa.
Amundsen was the first person to reach both the north and south poles, as well as to traverse the Northwest Passage, a waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
“It’s a small anchor,” Zembala said. “It was a small boat.”
While traversing the Northwest Passage, Amundsen dropped the anchor the Bramble’s crew picked up — more than 50 years later.
The anchor, which weighs about 50 pounds, is being sent to Port Huron by Coast Guard historian Jeff Bowdoin.
Bowdoin approached Zembala last fall about the anchor and Zembala jumped at the chance to procure the artifact. It has been kept for several years by Coast Guard historians and is not believed to have been on display.
The Traverse City Record Eagle reports that lighthouse keepers are needed on the Old Mission Peninsula in NW Lower Michigan:
Since January, the township has coordinated with lighthouse officials across the bay to solicit volunteers to work at the 19th century structure when it opens to the public for the first time in May, said Fred Stoye, chairman of the township park board.
“There are very few places in Michigan that allow you to live in a lighthouse,” said Grand Traverse Lighthouse director Stef Staley, who’s accepting applications for the Mission Point program.
Located on M-37 at the tip of Old Mission Peninsula, the lighthouse was built in 1870, and its first keeper, Jerome M. Pratt, guided boat traffic into Grand Traverse Bay by a kerosene lamp atop the 30-foot building.
Volunteers will be charged an $800-per-month program fee to live in the rear section of the historic home’s ground floor. The township hopes those funds, along with admissions fees for visitors, will be the first step toward a self-supporting park system.
The Bay City Times reports on a long-term plan to create a maritime heritage center in Bay City:
“We’ve been a world port since 1865,” the Bangor Township resident said. “For all of these years, ships from all over the world have been coming to our port city. We don’t want to lose sight of the heritage that we have.”
The proposed maritime heritage center would grace the northern 9 acres of the Uptown at RiversEdge site on Bay City’s East Side. Last August, the Bay City Commission awarded an option to purchase the land to the organization Tall Ship Celebration: Bay City.
The maritime heritage center is expected to include a combination of buildings that will support different functions, such as a boat building and repair shop, blacksmith shop, rope-making facility, sail-making loft, gift shop, restaurant and a host of other activities.
The Leelanau Enterprise reports that the harsh winter caused a Wisconsin buoy to float all the way to Michigan:
Ammons said a red nun buoy and a green buoy were found this spring along the waterfront in Leelanau Township, near Gills Pier. Each weighs and estimated 400 pounds and are believed to have broken away from their concrete moorings in Lake Michigan near Sturgeon Bay, Wis., about 30 miles west, and come to rest on the Leelanau Peninsula.
The Booth News Service has a story about three Michigan lighthouses that have been turned into Bed & Breakfast inns:
The Great Lakes Memorial and Museum in Muskegon is being renovated according to the Muskegon Chronicle:
The Great Lakes Memorial and Museum’s new channelside facility in Muskegon is starting to lose its “industrial marine” look, now that exterior work has picked up.
Window openings are appearing here and there in the building’s mariner blue sides and an arched brick entrance way is taking shape. Which is giving the two story, 16,500-square-foot structure more of the appearance of a public building devoted to the history of ships and the sea, and particularly that of the World War II USS Silversides floating out front.
During 14 war patrols in the Pacific during the war, Silversides sank 23 ships, the third-highest total of enemy ships sunk by a U.S. submarine during the war. It has been undergoing restoration in Muskegon since being towed here from Chicago’s Navy Pier in 1987.
The museum will feature a large open display area covering much of the ground floor. Elsewhere there will be offices, classrooms, a 72-seat movie theater, a research library and computer lab, conference and banquet areas, and staging areas and restrooms to accommodate those touring or staying overnight aboard the Silversides and the USCGC McLane docked behind it.
The Navy Sea Cadet Progrm and the Muskegon Power Squadron also will have their own meeting and office space.
Future plans include a projects dedicated to naval submarining in World War I, a tall ships project, a “Submarine Attack” ride, a Japanese Peace Gardena Golden Dolphin Cafe, andexpanded education and Sea Cadet programs.
The AP has a story about the Griffin, the oldest shipwreck on the Great Lakes. It is embroiled in a legal controversy over ownership and salvage rights:
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — A federal appeals court Tuesday ruled that the federal government should have authority for now over a Lake Michigan shipwreck that could be The Griffin, a 17th century vessel built by the French explorer La Salle.
Great Lakes Exploration Group LLC wants the federal government to have jurisdiction but to appoint the company as custodian until the courts determine who has ownership and salvage rights. The company says the French government may want to submit a claim.
The Griffin (also spelled “Griffon”) disappeared on its maiden voyage in 1679 after setting sail from an island near Green Bay, Wis., with a crew of six and a cargo of furs and other goods. It’s believed to have sunk in northern Lake Michigan.
Great Lakes Exploration’s president is Steve Libert of McLean, Va., who says he has been searching 30 years for The Griffin. He describes it as a “time capsule” that would provide valuable information about early French exploration of the region.
Libert refuses to disclose the exact site of the wreckage, saying he doesn’t want to tip off looters and sport divers who might damage it. He wants a promise from the state that he can stay involved as the wreckage is studied and take part in decisions about what to do with it.
His company in 2004 asked Bell to put the federal government in charge. Bell ordered the company to reveal the location so the state could investigate and decide whether to claim ownership.
http://www.woodtv.com/global/story.asp?s=8211541
The Muskegon Chronicle has a story about another Lake Michigan shipwreck, the Hamilton:
The final voyage of the 19th century two-masted schooner Hamilton started like so many others, departing Muskegon with a load of freshly cut timber bound for Chicago.
The discovery and identification of the vessel nearly 135 years later, spearheaded by Holland-based Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates, has put the Hamilton back in the news this week and Muskegon’s lumber era back in historical context.
That trip ended unexpectedly 15 miles off Saugatuck on Nov. 19, 1873, when a Lake Michigan gale sank the vessel and forced its seven-member crew to abandon ship.
The Hamilton sat on the bottom of Lake Michigan in 275 feet of water — its masts lying broken off on the starboard side and the deck and its final load missing — before it was discovered in 2006 and identified recently.
MSRA members search for shipwrecks in Lake Michigan by using historical research and special sonar equipment. They believe in unveiling their findings, the wreck’s location and the history of the ship to the public.
The Hamilton’s wreck sits upright on the bottom of Lake Michigan. At a depth of 275 feet, the wreck is considered a deep, dark and dangerous dive. The wreck is located 15 miles off shore, almost directly west and a little south of Saugatuck, van Heest said.
http://blog.mlive.com/chronicle/2008/04/underwater_odyssey.html
The Battle Creek Enquirer reports on a Lake Superior shipwreck discovery off the coast of Wisconsin:
She was the “Moonlight,” a wooden ship in an era of iron men and near-mythic triumph and tragedy on the Great lakes. She is renowned in sea-shanties that recall her grace, beauty and speed, her epic sailing duels with other schooners, racing the wind for home, and she is sadly remembered for her ignominious end, foundering in a fall gale near the Apostle Islands in September of 1903.
Fast-forward 102 years.
On July 30, 2004, shipwreck hunter Jerry Eliason is conducting a systematic searching for the legendary bulk freighter Marquette, which had sunk in the area of Michigan Island.
Instead, in some 240 feet of water, he discovered something he hadn’t even been looking for: the broken remains of the once majestic Moonlight.
Later that year, Bob Olson, Rick Peters and Ken Merryman, divers for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society, found the vessel to be an astonishing archaeological treasure trove, amazingly intact after more than a century in the icy, preserving cold waters of Lake Superior. There the divers found the ship’s china, lanterns, anchors and the original steering wheel — all items that are commonly quickly looted from the sunken remains of vessels in shallower, more accessible waters.
The S.S. Badger Carferry just completed its shakedown cruise for the upcoming season. Click below for the Ludington Daily News:
The SS Badger headed out the channel and turned south at 9:30 this morning in a trial run Lake Michigan Carferry service refers to as a “shakedown cruise.” The cruise is something the company has done for several years, with the exception of last year. “It is intended to ensure that everything is running safely and smoothly and alerts Lake Michigan Carferry to a problem before the Badger is full of passengers on the first day of sailing,” said Magee Johnson, LMC director of media relations. The season starts on Friday, May 9. The cruise is not mandated by the U.S. Coast Guard, but it is fully supported by the organization, Johnson said.
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