SUNKEN HISTORY — A Diver's Journal

by Capt. Ron Burkhard

This month I am not going to write about a specific shipwreck. Instead, I am focusing on shipwreck divers and the adventures that all SCUBA divers share by diving on these historical snapshots in time.

While recently having a couple of new divers spend the night with my wife and me, I witnessed their joyful spirit and sense of wonderment about underwater exploration feelings that we all once felt as new divers. Sometimes it is easy to lose this great sense of excitement felt while undertaking a new challenge - this one being the training, equipment preparation, and finally the underwater exploration of what is essentially a new world to first-time divers.

I am sure all divers go through this experience. With some divers, the feeling fades and they eventually walk away from diving. With others, the feeling of excitement and awe felt during underwater exploration remains until they can no longer SCUBA dive. However, with experienced divers these feelings can sometimes be overwhelmed by the boat, camera, and SCUBA gear preparation, the long trips to the dive sight, the weather conditions and also our generally hectic schedules. Just the job of diving can sometimes take the joy out of shipwreck diving. So, being around new divers helps bring things back into perspective. We are doing something a very small percentage of the population does. That is, taking a risk by going underwater and visiting these fantastic shipwrecks that lie on the lake bottom. Part of that great experience is sharing your adventure with other people - divers and non-divers.

Notice that when I talk about diving, it is mostly about shipwreck diving and not just general diving. There is a reason for that. It has been my experience in the Great Lakes that there are not many other reasons for diving. River and inland lake diving, and bottom scrounging, is fun when looking for bottles and other artifacts - and some divers do only that. There is nothing wrong with that and it can be exciting. It's just that the Great Lakes have premier shipwrecks that may be unique to the rest of the world. Our cold fresh water does an excellent job of preserving wrecks over 150 years old. To me, that is the main reason to dive when living in Michigan. Don't get me wrong, I have dived in the Pacific, Atlantic and Caribbean. The warm water, clear visibility, abundant and large fish life are incredible. It is a nice change to dive in those waters. They also have some nice shipwrecks, but they just do not compare to the quality of shipwrecks we have here.

I have been doing this series on shipwrecks for four years now and have concentrated mainly on shipwrecks off the shores of Michigan's upper Thumb area. There have been a few exceptions but I have focused on this area. There are more wrecks in this area I can write about and also many wrecks I have dived in the waters of southern Lake Huron. However, several circumstances have changed for me. Major back surgery this summer prevented me from diving this year and further surgery will probably end my SCUBA diving. I may not feel like writing about diving when I can no longer do it. Time will tell. Furthermore, I have never considered myself to be anything but an average diver. I know there are many more divers out there who have done more and seen more, who have a story to tell. I am asking for them to share their stories with us. My editor has agreed that we can try a guest columnist type of arrangement. I do not want to cause any more work for Julie Arndt so I would coordinate the stories so that each monthly deadline is met. I would introduce each author and make sure they get full credit for their work.

I consider the opportunity to write these monthly articles for The Lakeshore Guardian a privilege from Julie that I greatly appreciate. And I thank her for that. Other divers should recognize that it is a great way to promote SCUBA diving and also our state's great maritime history through our stories of these underwater archeological time capsules.

Julie and I would like to promote more shipwrecks from the southern end of Lake Huron where so many of the Guardian readers live. I can do this, but not as well as many other divers who have visited these wrecks numerous times. Please consider sharing your diving adventures with the nearly 10,000 readers of this paper. I would also like to continue exploration of more wrecks off Michigan's upper Thumb area. Maybe I will also throw in an occasional salt water story for variety. A visit to a wreck called the Titanic of the Caribbean would be interesting. Or, perhaps a diving visit to a deserted island used as a hide out by the woman pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Reid - that involved a dangerous shark encounter while I was there.

I think a group of contributing divers would be a great way to cover a multitude of wrecks. The wrecks I have covered so far, for Lake Huron, are the Philadelphia, Albany, Iron Chief, John McGean, Hunter Savidge, Dunderburg, Emma Nielsen, Grindstone Barge, Seaton, Daniel J. Morrell, Troy, Mystery Schooner, Goliath, Chickamauga, Wexford, and some shallow water wrecks. Most of these articles have been divided into multiple parts stretching over several newspaper editions. Please join me in helping to continue this exciting and worthwhile series about shipwrecks and SCUBA diving. Please contact me at 231-935-4217 or at rburkhard@charter.net.