Shipwreck discovered in Lake Superior

[LKunze]

Shipwreck found in good condition in Lake Superior
Updated: 07/21/2004 08:05:37 AM

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) - After more than five years of searching, shipwreck hunters have found the remains of a bulk freighter that sank in the frigid waters of Lake Superior more than a century ago.

The Robert Wallace was detected June 5 in more than 300 feet of water about 13 miles south-southeast of Two Harbors. Experts say the find itself - not to mention the condition of the ship - is rare.

"We were amazed. It's so intact," said Jerry Eliason, a longtime diver who lives in Scanlon. "None of us had ever seen a wooden steamer that looked like that before. There's very little debris. Just about everything is still on the wreck. It's even sitting upright on an even keel."

The Robert Wallace was carrying iron ore when it sank on Nov. 17, 1902, in relatively calm water.

"There was no loss of life," Eliason said. "It hit a log or something, is what it did, and tore out its stern post."

The wreck, which was believed to be on the Minnesota side of the lake, was actually found in Wisconsin waters. Thom Holden, director of the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center in Duluth, said the historical record will need to be adjusted.

Jay Hanson, owner of Superior Scuba Center in Duluth, said the find has been "the buzz" of the diving community. "It's pretty rare to find a wreck in Lake Superior."

Eliason's last discovery, with longtime hunting partner Kraig Smith of Rice Lake, Wis., was in 1990, when he found the freighter Judge Hart, which sank in a storm in November 1942 in Canadian waters.

His search team includes Smith, Randy Beebe, of Duluth, and Ken Merryman, of Fridley. Eliason's son, Jarrod Eliason of Colorado Springs, Colo., designed the torpedo-looking side-scan sonar that first detected the Robert Wallace.

"We were all excited when we first saw it. We'd been working on this mystery five years," said Merryman, a shipwreck hunter of more than 30 years and a member of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society. "We drive around in circles a lot. It's nice to finally have a place to stop."

The team plans to dive to the Robert Wallace in August when Lake Superior warms up. The water is only about 42 degrees now, Merryman said.

Diving to the wreck will take about five minutes, and the team will spend about 10 minutes videotaping and photographing the ship before returning to the surface, Merryman said.

The Wallace appears to have sunk slowly and landed softly on the bottom. It's one of only a couple of wrecks in Lake Superior with its smokestack still in place.

"It's like nothing we've ever seen before," Eliason said of the wreck's condition. "The only thing we can detect missing is the wheelhouse."

The search team is worried about the amount of silt on the wreck. If disturbed, a cloud of slow-settling silt could obscure their view.



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[usediver]

from kare 11 news...
Robert Wallace Shipwreck Find Worthwhile

By Ken Speake, KARE-11

They say hunting for shipwrecks is a boring sport, but every once-in-a-while, Ken Merryman and his colleagues find a FIND.

For example, they hunted fifty square miles of Lake Superior for five years before they found the Robert Wallace which sank in 1902. The Robert Wallace was a wood hulled steam powered bulk freighter, hauling iron ore from Superior, Wisconsin to Cleveland, Ohio. As was the practice in 1902, the Robert Wallace was towing the barge Ashland, loaded with more iron ore. Reports say gale force winds caused the Ashland to tear the stern off the Robert Wallace. Her crew were able to make it safely to the Ashland, which eventually was safely towed into Two Harbors.

Ken Merryman and colleagues found the shipwreck June fifth under more than 300 feet of water. They "bounced" as they call it, a video camera on the wreck, discovering the ship’s bell on the first pass. On later passes they saw what they believe to be the ships forward cabin, chains still tight, supporting what may be running light posts, the ship’s name board showing the letters "RO."

Merryman says the ship appears to be upright and intact. "We believe it is one of the most intact wooden freighters on Lake Superior." He and his colleagues plan to dive on the wreck later this summer with hopes of getting video of the ship’s steam engines.

Merryman says the hunt is boring… pulling a side scan sonar device through the water at a speed of three miles an hour… navigating one mile, reversing course and running parallel 500 feet away, reversing course and running parallel another 500 feet away, taking eleven passes to cover a square mile. On a good day, he says they’d cover two square miles if they were lucky.

The hunt is boring. But, he says, the FIND, even though there’s no money in it, makes the hunt worthwhile.


Last Updated - 7/22/2004 5:34:52 PM

[rcojr]

There was a shipwreck found but it isn't the Robert Wallace.
They jumped the gun on identifing it. Turns out it is the Thomas Friant a 96ft freighter/fishing tug.
If you have Dr Wolff's book Lake Superior Shipwrecks there is a picture on page 175. It sank in 1924.