Posted by Craig Rich on October 21, 19102 at 15:36:03:
(Holland, MI)--Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates, in cooperation with the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration NOAA), Michigan State Police and the University of Michigan conducted a video survey of the remains of the vessel now thought to be the H. C. Akeley on Friday, 11 October 2002.
The team spent several hours on-site collecting video and still images of the vessel, which sits upright in 270 feet of water 15 miles due west of Saugatuck. The M-ROVER Remote Operated Vehicle operated from the MOAA research vesssel Laurentian. While the M-ROVER did not record images of a nameboard or other definitive proof of the vessel's identity it did confirm many of the ship's features which were consistent with those of the H. C. Akeley.
The M-Rover video will enhance diver eyewitness and video documentation as well as drop-camera video images obtained over the past year. Local technical divers Charles Larsen and Jeff Vos also have visited the wreck separately on numerous occasions.
The H. C. Akeley was built at Mechanics Dry Dock Company in Grand Haven in 1881 by Thomas C. Kirby and Healy C. Akeley. She foundered in a storm in November 1883 after losing rudder control while towing another vehicle in distress. The captain and five crewmembers lost their lives in the disaster, while 12 other crewmen left the doomed ship just prior to the sinking and were rescued by a nearby vessel.
Contemporary newspaper accounts says the Akeley's crew put the vessel at anchor in an attempt to keep her into the wind and that her smokestack toppled from the ship before she sank. The new video has confirmed a large anchor chain playing out from the ship's intact bow and the absence of a smokestack. Also consistent with the Akeley are 6 or 7 large cargo hatches on the ship's deck, twin boilers and a single engine.
The wreck was first discovered on 25 May 2001 by a team of shipwreck researchers who went on to form Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates -- a Holland, Michigan-based, non-profit organization dedicated to research, search & discovery, documentation and education regarding Great Lakes shipwrecks. The team's original quest was for the wreck of the steamer Chicora which remains missing. MSRA President Jan Miller is currently redefining the Chicora search corridor for another survey in 2003.
The story of the difficult deep-water identification and documentation process will be the subject of an MSRA presentation at various Great Lakes shipwreck events in 2003.
Documentation efforts by MSRA are partially funded by a grant from the Great Lakes Shipwreck Research Foundation.