FORBES MAGAZINE SUPERIOR CHARTERS

[MAXFACTOR]

Wow.  CONGRATULATIONS JAY HANSON AND SUPERIOR CHARTERS, SUPERIOR DIVE CENTERS  DULUTH MINNESOTA...... on the article and the mention in Forbes June 2007 magazine.  Thanks for promoting diving in Minnesota.   
GREAT WORK  JAY....
MAXFACTOR


here is a copy of the article:


Nice Wreck
Mary Ellen Egan 05.21.07    author 

 
4,000 ships litter the bottom of the Great Lakes. It's worth a few goose bumps to visit them.
Costa Rica? Palau? Fiji? The vistas under their warm waters may be lush. But they lack wreckage. Divers who hanker after hulks prefer the grubby Great Lakes, where for 200 years industry and nature have conspired to build ships, sink them and then preserve the remains under conditions so perfect as to be practically archival.

The coldness of the Great Lakes' water retards decay. Zebra mussels filter silt. The result is visibility that Scuba Diving magazine calls "schnapps-clear."

The great industrial centers of the Midwest, in order to reach world markets, have historically relied on huge oceangoing vessels. Fickle weather has sent many to the bottom--none more famously, perhaps, than the Edmund Fitzgerald, a 13,600-ton, 729-foot freighter that went down in Lake Superior in November 1975, taking 29 crew members with her. The tragedy was immortalized in a ballad a year later by Gordon Lightfoot.

Any thought of my visiting the Fitzgerald vanished the moment I discovered that the wreck is 535 feet below the surface--too deep for an amateur, especially one who until last summer had dived only in swimming pools. But the Great Lakes have more than 4,000 wrecks, many at depths easily accessible to recreational divers. Standard scuba equipment lets you descend to 130 feet. Deeper dives typically require advanced training, a breathing mix of helium, oxygen and nitrogen, and a dry suit (warmer and more protective than a wet suit).

Superior, the biggest of the five Great Lakes at 31,700 square miles, holds 100 known wrecks; historians estimate that there are another 46 ships that haven't been located yet. The water is clear and insanely cold. Even in the summer its temperature averages just 52 degrees Fahrenheit.

Last summer I contacted Jay Hanson, a veteran wreck diver and owner of Superior Scuba Charters in Duluth, Minn., who suggested a dive that would be manageable for a novice yet would still qualify as an authentic wreck dive.

On a hot and humid August afternoon Harold, my boyfriend, and I met Hanson at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, an hour's drive north of Duluth. The dive beach is situated in a cove surrounded by steep rock cliffs topped with pine, birch and ash.

One hundred fifty yards from shore and 23 to 120 feet down lies the Madeira, a schooner-barge that carried grain, lumber and iron ore through the Great Lakes and on the coasts. Like the famed Fitzgerald, the Madeira was the victim of a November storm.

On Nov. 28, 1905 she was under tow by the steamer William Edenborn during the worst storm in Great Lakes history. The captain of the steamer cut the towline, so both ships could have a better shot at survival. The Madeira struck Gold Rock on the northeastern side of the cove. Her hull broke, and she sank. Her present-day remains include substantial portions of the bow and stern, the pilot house and boat deck, and several large sections amidships.

After struggling and sweating our way into extra-thick wet suits, we donned our scuba gear and waddled into water that, at least on its surface, was a balmy 70 degrees. We waded out 20 feet and began to submerge.

Visibility was as much as 35 feet. We slowly descended, following the lake's bottom, where boulders were covered in a furry brown silt slick to the touch.

We swam across the bow and looked inside the anchor winch, through which the chain had once run. We'd descended so gradually that I wasn't aware we were 50 feet underwater until I looked up. The sudden realization that we were that far from the surface shook my confidence. I started to feel a bit panicky, so I took slow, deep breaths and tried to calm my mind.

We paddled around the wreck for 20 minutes; then, all of sudden, I began to rise. I had no idea what was happening and couldn't stop my ascent. (We discovered later that my buoyancy-control device had malfunctioned.) Jay and Harold soon surfaced, and we all swam to shore to rest a bit.

I tried to collect my wits. If I quit now, I knew, I probably would never dive again. But since I had just faced down my fear and survived, it didn't make sense to give up.

We descended again, this time to the Madeira's stern, and swam across the keel, then to the fantail. The water was murkier on this second dive, thanks to the sand and silt we'd kicked up earlier. But as we swam through the middle section of the hull we were able to spot a couple of lake trout, swimming around oblivious to our presence. After 34 minutes we headed to the surface and back to the shore.

If this sounds like your idea of fun, there's plenty more to see. The Thunder Bay National (otcbb: BANI.OB - news - people ) Marine Sanctuary near Alpena, Mich. has more than 100 historic wrecks, including the New Orleans, a wooden side-wheel steamboat that's just 15 feet below the surface. Isle Royale National Park farther north has the America, a 183-foot freighter that sank in 1928 and still has a Model T truck (or remnants thereof) in its cargo hold. Lake Huron's Fathom Five National Marine Park has 22 wrecks. And a 338-foot car ferry awaits you off Milwaukee.

GREAT WORK  JAY
MAXFACTOR

[flyboy65]

Very good article, and excellent writing.  Makes me want to be on the Madeira, again...badly.

[VintageDiverMN]

Is Forbes a new dive magazine?

[gclassen]

Sounds like it should be.

Greg

[MAXFACTOR]

I laughed pretty hard about the comments.  Yes.  it must be a new dive magazine.  But the reality is.... the people who read it have pretty strong demographics and spendable income.  Our stores have 15 dive trips planned for next year.  Non of them are free. 

Anyway,  have fun diving everyone.  Once again Great article Jay.  That's the spirit of promoting diving.  All of the dive center owners benefit from this type of article, not only in Minnesota, but all over the US and abroad.  Forbes travel, is in the top 20 magazines for monthly publications in the world.  PROMOTE DIVING......  yeee  haaaa    JAY.

Maxfactor