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T H E B L A D E , T O L E D O , O H I O ■ S U N D A Y , O C T O B E R 9 , 2 0 0 5 S E C T I O N B , P A G E 6

What lies beneathUh-oh, my knee was wet.Well, maybe just cold. No, definite-

ly wet.I was about 105 feet under the sur-

face of Lake Ontario, hovering abovethe decks of the Munson, a dredge ves-sel that sank more than 100 years ago.

Scattered around the wreckage werehammers and wrenches, all abandonedby the crew, and the bucket used fordredging that was lodged in the sand.

It was a local favorite for divers, ourboat captain said, a shipwreck with“spectacular features.”

But I couldn’t get past the icy sensationcreeping along my leg rendering myotherwise impenetrable dry-suit some-what useless. “I think I have a leak,” I wroteon my buddy’s underwater slate as westarted toward the surface.

The hole was the work of a razorsharp zebra mussel, which left a tinyslice in the material protecting me fromLake Ontario’s 48-degree water.

Overall, it was a minor problem fora Great Lakes diver to contend with,and one solved with a bit of duct tape.More importantly, it served as a reminder.

We may be comfortable enteringthe vast blue world underwater.

But we will always be visitors.Throughout the summer photogra-

pher Andy Morrison and I traveled to var-ious towns along the Great Lakes on aquest to submerge into each of the fivebodies of water. We wanted to learnmore about the lakes than what the rip-pling waves on the surface show us.

Deep beneath the choppy surfaceand enveloped in the depths of the GreatLakes’ frosty water, is a unique look atmaritime history that can only be exploredby scuba diving.

“It’s challenging, it’s difficult, andit’s not always comfortable, but as far asshipwreck diving goes, it is the mostrewarding,” explained Great Lakes mar-itime historian and author Cris Kohl.

An estimated 6,000 ships litter the silty,mucky floors of the Great Lakes. Whilesome are nothing more than brokenboards, others appear as if they could once

again ride the waves.Each has a story to tell.“That’s why I like diving shipwrecks,”

said Dale Musser, owner of Sea LevelScuba in Northwood. “Because you getto see something less than 1 percent ofthe world gets to see.”

And divers like us come away with sto-ries of our own.

In western Lake Erie, we descendedto the Willis, a three-masted schoonerdowned in a collision within its firstyear sailing. But a wrong turn in thedark, murky waters meant we lost sightof the ship for good. And so, after admit-ting we wouldn’t find the wreck throughthe algae-filled water, we slowly ascend-ed to the surface without the help of amooring line.

The July sun penetrated Lake Michi-gan’s crisp waters in the Straits of Mack-

inac, illuminating the decks of the EberWard 111 feet deep. Dropping down theline, our first sight of the virtually intactwooden steamer was enough to takeour breath away.

Our first descent in Lake Huronfound us hovering above only sand, a suresign that the mooring line we followedto the New York had pulled free. A newplan took us to the nearby Checotah, aschooner-barge built 135 years ago in Tole-do.

On the top deck of the George A.Marsh in Lake Ontario, we circled a pileof artifacts, including a kettle and a dis-integrating leather boot, eerie remindersof the 12 people who perished when itfoundered in a 1917 storm.

And the breaking waves at White-fish Point hinted at why this area iscalled the graveyard of Lake Superior. Alifeboat remained aboard the Vienna,an iron ore carrier that sank with allcrew surviving, an unusual occurrencein the deadly waters near Paradise, Mich.

Each wreck is unique, and it’s notenough just to see the captainís wheel,a shipís bell, or even the crew’s toilet. Totruly appreciate a shipwreck, you haveto learn what happened that sent the ves-sel to its watery grave.

What was the ship hauling? Did itcrash in the night or in a storm? Who wasaboard? Did they make it off alive?

“It is only because the water is cold,fresh, and deep that we have an oppor-tunity to experience and study so close-ly the history of Great Lakes shipping andpreserve it for future generations,” saidMark Kistner, president of the Michi-gan Underwater Preserve Council.

But the waters that entomb theseships conceal hundreds more wrecksthat are waiting to be explored.

That’s where divers like Harold Van-denberg come in. A Kingston, Ont., char-ter boat captain, he spends his sparetime scouring the lake beds with radarfor lost wrecks.

“It takes a lot of time and patience.Sometimes you find something, butmost of the time you don’t,” he said.“But when you do, oh what a thrill.”

Contact Erica Blake at:eblake@theblade or 419-724-6076.

The Great Lakes conceal an underwater museum of shipwrecks

Five lives were lost in 1909 when the Eber Ward sunk to its grave in the Straits of Mackinac, 142 feet belowthe surface of Lake Michigan.

Deadeyes, which are used to hold sails in place, line the railing of theGeorge A. Marsh at the bottom of Lake Ontario. The schooner sank ina storm in 1917, sending 12 people to their death.

Oregon resident Dale Musser takes a breather in the backof a boat on his way to a dive in the Pelee Passage on theOntario side of Lake Erie.

Divers climb aboard their boat after exploring a wooden steamer inthe depths of the Straits of Mackinac.

The bell of the Sadie Thompson is116 feet below Lake Superior nearWhitefish Point.

The remains ofthe WilliamYoung were dis-covered in 2002on the LakeHuron side ofthe Straits ofMackinac.

Blade staff writer Erica Blake andphotographer Andy Morrison, bothcertified divers, set out this summerto dive in each of the five Great Lakes,completing their last dive in LakeSuperior just one week ago.

100905_RP5_SUN__B6 1 10/7/2005, 2:40:45 PM