Marine sanctuary staff works to complete map of sunken freighter
Patty RamusArticle Photos
By PATTY RAMUS
News Staff Writer
Area divers will have access to a site map of a popular shipwrecked freighter near Thunder Bay in the near future, after current work by Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary staff is completed.
On June 22, State Maritime Archaeologist Wayne Lusardi, Tane Casserley, maritime heritage coordinator, Sarah Newman, education specialist, Russ Green, deputy superintendent, and Joe Hoyt, an archaeologist from the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary in Virginia, began work to develop a site plan for the Grecian, a nearly 300-foot steel bulk freight steamer.
The vessel was built in 1891 by Globe Iron Works in Cleveland, Ohio, and was lost June 15, 1906, just outside of Thunder Bay after sustaining hull damage from running aground. The site is a popular dive because it's a large wreck and has remained intact at certain portions, Lusardi said.
"It's been a real popular dive spot for many decades but we don't have the basic documentation. We don't have a site plan," he said. "We don't have a good feel for the shipwreck."
Sanctuary staff have documented 14 wrecks and have site plans in PDF documents available for download at the sanctuary's Web site. There are around a dozen additional wrecks the staff have been in the process of trying to complete documentation for. The sanctuary's long-term goal is to have all of the known wrecks documented at some point, Lusardi said.
"To do this level work takes a lot of time," Casserley said.
Lusardi said they decided to tackle the Grecian because of the vessel's popularity and they wanted to utilize Hoyt's expertise while he's working in Alpena. A larger team had to be assembled because it's a bigger wreck and in deeper water. The deep water will require more dives to complete the work than wrecks found in shallower water.
The team started with a reconnaissance dive on June 22 to get an overall view of the wreck and to divide up the tasks among the participating divers. A baseline, running along the center of the top view of the wreck, was developed and the wreck was divided into sections for each diver to take measurements of and draw.
Photo mosaics were developed of the stern because it was largely intact. The mosaics were printed on waterproof paper to serve as preliminary sketches and allowed the divers responsible for those sections to take down measurements while underwater. The divers working on the bow drew rough sketches and recorded their measurements on those, Lusardi said.
Team members are making a preliminary pencil drawing on draft paper of the vertical view of the wreck, using a quarter inch scale. The entire drawing will be about 75 inches in length when it's completed. The drawing is expected to be completed by the end of this week.
"When this is all done, we'll put a piece of Mylar plastic and do permanent ink. That can be scanned in very high resolution," Lusardi said.
Lusardi said staff likely will work on the permanent ink within the next few weeks. The process is time consuming because people can only work on a section at a time and have to wait for the ink to dry. In addition to the vertical site plan, a horizontal view of the wreck will be documented.
When the final work is scanned, people will be able to get a horizontal and vertical view of the wreck along with the global positioning system coordinates of the mooring buoys on the sanctuary Web site, Casserley said.
Patty Ramus can be reached via e-mail at pramus@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5687.
