About Brendon Baillod

Brendon Baillod has been conducting original research into historic Great Lakes shipwrecks for over 20 years. One of the leading authorities on shipwrecks of the Western Great Lakes, Baillod is the current president of the Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association (www.wuaa.org), a Trustee of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum (www.wisconsinmaritime.org) and a Director-At-Large of the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History (www.aglmh.net). Brendon is a founder of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Research Foundation, which hosts Milwaukee's Ghost Ships Festival and is a frequent consultant on Great Lakes shipwrecks. He has appeared as a subject matter expert on the History Channel, Discovery Channel and Science Channel, and was the recipient of the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History's 2008 Award for Historic Interpretation.

Brendon is the author of "Fathoms Deep But Not Forgotten: Wisconsin's Lost Ships," a comprehensive guide to the historic shipwrecks of Wisconsin and has published over 50 articles and stories in regional magazines and journals. He is an avid collector of Great Lakes marine antiquities and holds the largest private collection of 19th century Great Lakes books, maps and ephemera in Wisconsin. His collection includes full original runs of the Annual List of US Merchant Vessels (1868-1994), the Annual Reports of the US Lifesaving Service (1875-1915), Inland Lloyds/Board of Lake Underwriters Hull Register (1860-1907), Beeson's Marine Directory (1888-1921), Green's Marine Directory (1909-1968) as well as nearly complete runs of the Great Lakes Register/ABS, Blue Book of American Shipping, Lake Shipmasters Directory, Polk's Great Lakes Directory and several others.

Brendon has completed several successful projects to digitize, transcribe and make available online, valuable historical data. He created the search engine for the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society's Vessel Enrollment database and hosts it, as well as having created and hosting the David Swayze Shipwreck Database, the Dr. Charles E. Feltner Vessel Enrollment Database, and his own database of 19th century Great Lakes vessel accident lists, containing over 30,000 accidents between 1840 and 1900. Brendon has also contributed content to the Walter Lewis Great Lakes Maritime History Website and has the oldest continuously operating Great Lakes shipwreck website on the internet, having launched in 1994.

Brendon is also frequently consulted for appraisals of Great Lakes martime antiquities, artwork and ephemera and has appraised several maritime collections for donation to public collections. Brendon is also an avid Great Lakes wreckhunter who has worked with many different groups around the Great Lakes.

He can be reached at brendon@ship-wreck.com.