Posted by Brendon Baillod on July 13, 19100 at 17:02:53:
In Reply to: Brendon, any new shipwrecks along Keewenaw coast? posted by Eric Sand on July 13, 19100 at 13:23:49:
Eric,
You have probably heard about the large vessel members found east of Esrey Park. These remains are almost certainly from the Colorado on Sawtooth Reef, and probably were blown there over the winter that the vessel broke up. All historical losses in that area of the Keweenaw are pretty well accounted for and the few "went missing" vessels are known to have deposited debris along different areas of beach further south on the western shore of the Keweenaw and are thought to lie in deep water. In the case of the Sunbeam, no large members were ever located (suggesting that the hull foundered relatively intact, and debris from the vessel came ashore far from that location. The same is the case with the Manistee and other area losses. The members are clearly hull members. Hulls generally do not come apart in founderings, but rather come apart from grounding and beating on shoals. Subsequently, the members are almost certainly from one of the Sawtooth wrecks and not from a "went missing" vessel and certainly not from some previously unknown loss, as the area's losses have been meticulously researched by many historians. As to the sidescan question, the area has not been scanned due to the nature of the bottom. Even the best sidescans would be almost useless in the rocky shoals of the area and the bottom drops precipitously and is quite irregular. The area has not been swept with a mag because no historic losses occurred in the shallow water of the immediate area and the deep losses in the area were (and still are) considered too deep for exploration by all but ROVs. The many lightered cargoes of iron ore in the area also discourage mag survey. I think someone may have luck someday looking for the Sunbeam, Hudson or S.R. Kirby with a mag, but I don't know what they'd do if they found one of them. I place them in 400 to 700 ft. of water based on accounts.
: Has anyone done any side-can or proton mag runs along the western shore of the Keewenaw just south of Copper Harbor? (Hebard Park area)