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From: baillod
Category: Shipwreck Research
Date: 20 Nov 2007
Time: 18:09:07
Remote Name: 64.73.69.5
Interesting obit about Paul Ackerman who produced the Midwest Explorer's League Great Lakes Shipwreck Charts:
Charted Great Lakes shipwrecks: Research inspired generations of Divers Chicago Sun-Times, Jan 25, 2007 by Larry Finley
Underneath the choppy waters of Lake Michigan off the Illinois shoreline is a silent, sunken parade of history that is visited by a stream of aquatic tourists every summer.
More than a dozen major ships are out there, from the famous steamer Lady Elgin that burned and sank off Waukegan in 1860 with 350 passengers lost, to the schooner J. Loomis McLaren, which went under seven miles east of the Chicago Light in 1894.
Paul Ackerman was fascinated with the thought of the hundreds of ships lost in Lake Michigan. So, in the 1970s, he began to record not only all of the Lake Michigan sites, but known wrecks in the four other Great Lakes.
Paul Ackerman, 93, author of the Great Lakes Dive Charts, died Monday in Resurrection Hospital.
The six heavily researched and annotated maps have gone though numerous printings and have been used by generations of divers, said Dan Johnson, president of Loves Park Scuba and Snorkel.
"I would say on any given Sunday in Chicago there are probably 100 divers out there in Lake Michigan when the weather's good," Johnson said. "Paul inspired the people who do the shipwreck diving. A young guy walks into a scuba shop and he sees that chart on the wall and says, 'I want to dive a ship wreck.' And away he goes."
TRAINED SOLDIERS
Mr. Ackerman swam and loved boats all of his life, but he didn't get his certification as an open water scuba diver until 1977, when he was 64 years old, Johnson said.
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"Paul began talking to other scuba divers about shipwrecks," he said. "He was soon provided locations of shipwrecks the other divers had known about. He then started his extensive research, spending many hours writing letters to diving associations and studying marine logs in nautical museums."
The result was six charts, one for each of the five Great Lakes, plus another for the wreck-riddled south shore of Lake Michigan. The maps are about 35 by 23 inches.
"The charts show you the location of shipwrecks by names and LORAN (Long Range Navigation) numbers," Johnson said. "Plus, they have the dates they sank, the size or tonnage of the ships, what they were made of, what type ship they were."
Johnson worked with Mr. Ackerman compiling the charts and took over their distribution when Mr. Ackerman retired a year ago. The charts are now available at his Loves Park Scuba store and school in Loves Park.
"His love of boats and water all started during World War II when Paul used to train soldiers how to swim while serving in New Guinea," Johnson said.
Mr. Ackerman was born in the Cincinnati area, said his cousin Jerome Zwick, of Chicago. He moved with his family to Chicago at an early age.
"He was in the infantry in the South Pacific during the war and did some scouting and made maps," Zwick said.
Mr. Ackerman held a variety of jobs including as a baker at the old Piper's Bakery in Old Town and a cabinet maker for advertising displays and trade shows.
CHICAGO POWER SQUADRON
"He constructed a couple cabin cruisers and he went down the Mississippi River in one of them," Zwick said.
Mr. Ackerman was active for many years in the Chicago Power Squadron, boaters who train new boaters in operation techniques, water safety, weather and other areas needed for obtaining a boating permit.
Always good with his hands, he painted landscapes, sea scenes, people and, of course, boats, Zwick said. "He raised bees and sold honey in Lockport once, too," he added. "He did a lot of things."
Mr. Ackerman, a North Side resident, was a member of Knights of Columbus and a founding member of the Midwest Explorers League.
Survivors include a sister, Florence, and other cousins.
Visitation will be 3 to 9 p.m. today at Cooney Funeral Home, 3918 W. Irving Park Rd. Services will be at 10 a.m. Friday at St. Andrew Church, Paulina and Addison.
Burial will be in St. Joseph Cemetery in River Grove.