12 July 2005 Ocean Wave, Sevastopol
(July 12, 2005)
Tom Milbrath joined the team today, who once again found glass-calm seas on the Ocean Wave site with excellent visibility on the bottom. The water temperature at depth, however, had dropped to a numbing 39° Fahrenheit. Despite the cold water, the team made excellent progress in mapping the site. The divers worked in teams of two taking measurements and adding detail to the site plan drawn from the photo mosaic.
Suiting up on the
Orion and
Dawn TreaderThe Ocean Wave is an important site for Great Lakes maritime heritage. Despite the fact that scow schooners were once common on the Lakes, contemporary writers recorded very little information on scow schooners. As scow schooners disappeared from the Lakes, they were all but forgotten, and today very little is known of these once common craft. Because very little information on scow schooners exists in the historical record, we must look to wreck sites to learn what we can about Great Lakes’ scows.
Keith records bow construction
Scow schooners are rare in the archaeological record of shipwrecks that lay on the lake bottoms. To date, the Ocean Wave is one of the most intact scows discovered, and the only scow within reasonable diving range where bow and stern construction can be thoroughly studied. Therefore, two main objectives of the survey are to document the bow and stern construction techniques. Because the vessel is somewhat broken up, it is easy to access and record internal construction techniques, which would be unobservable in a completely intact vessel.
After completing two dives and returning to the base camp, evenings are spent fillings scuba tanks for the following day’s dives, adding gathered information to the site plan, and repairing any equipment broken that afternoon.
Ethan patches holes in his drysuit
WHS photos by Tamara Thomsen
