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From: baillod
Category: Shipwreck Research
Date: 08 May 2007
Time: 19:05:20
Remote Name: 64.73.69.5
Dave,
Most wrecks are located using a combination of historical research and technology. Only a few wreckhunters solely "mow the lawn" in hopes of chancing upon a wrecksite. Dave Trotter, for example, has a very good idea of which wrecks are in the area and where they might be when he goes out in the Spring.
Given the barriers to entry, time, money, opportunity cost and equipment cost involved in a search, almost every serious wreckhunter spends a significant amount of research time before committing to a hunt for a wrecksite. Then, a great deal of analysis is done, taking into account many factors, including the historical research.
I personally find first person accounts to be somewhat spurious. More often than not, the remembrances of people who actually experience a wreck are colored by the excitement of the moment and distorted by time and subsequent press reports. I've seen a lot of time wasted by people who rely absolutely on first person accounts. One should generally apply logic and common sense with equal amounts of historical research and "on the water" know-how. A big part of finding wrecks is having a good sense for what captains actually did on the water and what the Lake/surroundings actually look like under storm conditions.
I wrote an extensive article, in which I detail a methodology for finding wrecksites using historical records and common sense. It is at:
http://www.mailbag.com/users/wuaa/Jun05.pdf
I also did an article on research methods, which is at:
http://www.mailbag.com/users/wuaa/WUAAmar04.pdf