Great Lakes shipwrecks

[gsmeiers]

I understand -- I was just hoping to track down the book and purchase it.

Could you send me a better scan? The pictures here are a little fuzzy.

Garrett

 

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Family Maps of Hinds County, Mississippi, Deluxe Edition - Grab it through Amazon!

[gsmeiers]

Already tried that -- they are still blury... Oh well, I'll find the book. I can make out most of it -- some of the letters are hard to read what they are.

I've done graphics design for about 13 years and ahve tried a few different tools to no avail. Might something that is done to the pictures when you upload them here. I've checked on three different computers here and it's blurry on all of them.

Not a big deal, I'll make do.

Garrett

 

[GunFarce]

Thats the problem with .jpg's.. Every time you load one, and do anything to it, and then re-save it as a .jpg, it compresses again, and get a little worse.. You can test this by loading one into a editor, and then simply save it with another filename and compare the size of the two files.. The new file will be smaller and a Little crappier.. Thats why no commercial printer that takes any pride in their work, will accept .jpg's as artwork.. If you want to resave a file without degradation, save it as a .tif It's just as good as a .bmp, and a hell of a lot smaller.. If you blow up the pictures, and rotate the files, save them as a .tif and NOT a .jpg they will print better, and stay clearer..

 

[Badger Bart]

Great Lakes shipwrecks - the Griffin

French side with diver seeking salvage rights to 17th-century vessel


GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. More than 300 years after the Griffin vanished, a Great Lakes treasure hunter wants to obtain the salvage rights to it.

Steve Libert of Virginia says the government of France supports his bid to claim the first European trade ship on Lake Michigan.

Libert filed a federal lawsuit last summer claiming the sunken ship.

The Griffin, built in North America by French explorer Robert de La Salle, disappeared on its maiden voyage in 1679.

The Griffin was the first European decked ship to sail the upper Great Lakes and is considered a prize among shipwreck hunters.

Michigan claims ownership of historic shipwrecks under the Abandoned Shipwreck Act.

But Libert's attorney says the French government could assert ownership rights to the Griffin.

(Can we claim all of France since we took it from the Germans a few years ago? On second thought, would we want to?)[/b]

Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

 

[Badger Bart]

http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?y=0&bsi=30&tn=the+lakes+of+treasure&x=0

The Great Lakes Maritime Research has published a book on shipwrecks, the above link shows a bookseller that has one available for $125.00.

 

[SASQUASH]

Any where between Hudson Bay & Lake Superior is going to be the best & oldest wrecks but be prepaired with a big barge Crane. Most of the best finds are big. One of the more known finds is the old growth hard wood logs with the old lumber mill stamps on the ends. They where retrieved from Lake Superior & in good shape.

 

[Badger Bart]

Great Lakes shipwrecks Treasure found

Treasure Found in lost Logs - Stradivarius....

In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, an army of loggers labored beneath the seemingly endless canopy of the white pine forests that stretched from Wisconsin to Canada, harvesting the virgin hardwoods that grew beneath the cool protective shade of the pines.

The old-growth trees of those far-reaching Northeast lands are forever gone--or are they? Several years ago, Scott Mitchen, co-founder along with Robert "Buz" Holland of the Superior Water-Logged Lumber Co., Inc., based in Ashland, Wisconsin, discovered that hundreds of thousands--if not millions --of logs lie preserved on the bed of Lake Superior, remnants of logging operations that stretch back over 300 years. Transported in chain-boomed rafts to sawmills, 20% to 30% of the timber became water-logged and fell to the lake bed, where it is destined to remain. That is, until treasure hunter and shipwreck salvager Scott Mitchen and his team of divers get hold of it. "This," says Mitchen, "is the biggest treasure we've ever found."

Lake Superior, the world's largest body of fresh water, proved to be the best possible resting place for the lost timber, some of which sank below its thick glassy surface before the United States of America existed. The low temperatures and oxygen content of the lake preserved the logs, some nearly 700 years old, embalming them like mummies from a lost civilization.

Because these mummified logs once grew under a canopy of conifers in low light and limited-nutrient conditions, they matured slower than the fast-growing varieties modem tree farms now use. The result is a superfine grain, with 25 to 70 growth rings an inch (the highest count yet is 77 rings an inch). This compares to an average of six to 15 growth rings an inch in today's harvested trees. "The growth rings are so tight, they're like pages in a book," says Mitchen.

Superior Water-Logged is using the salvaged wood to build furniture, handicrafts, and musical instruments. Marketed under the trademark Timeless Timber, many of these items are crafted by locals in the Ashland area. One can purchase a walking stick made from a century-old hard maple for $135, wood carvings starting at $140, or a hand-carved decoy for $1,500. The furniture, much of it built in the mission or Arts & Crafts style, costs from a few hundred dollars to several thousand.
The furniture is assembled with old-fashioned woodworking techniques, such as pegs in place of nails, and pinned mortise and tenon joinery. Craftsmen who use the wood first had to rediscover and learn these largely antiquated methods. "We had to teach ourselves," says Gregory M. Leick, chief executive officer of Leick Furniture, based in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, which makes furniture from the logs. "Because this wood is so special, it deserved the best treatment we could muster."
Leick Furniture uses the wood for such items as its red oak Ashland Curio Cabinet, which costs $2,500, as well as for red oak clocks, which retail from $100 to $750.

One of the traditional techniques Leick Furniture uses to improve the quality of the products built from the wood is the quartersawn method. The mod em technique for cutting slabs of wood is the flatsawn method, in which flat slices are cut from a log like slicing a carrot. The quartersawn method, however, cuts the log into four sections, like a pie. This, Leick says, exposes ray-fakes, which enhances the appearance of the wood, giving it a traditional Arts & Crafts look. "The yield isn't as good," Leick says, "but it makes more stable wood because the rays bind across the grain."

Dave Johns, a local Ashland craftsman, makes furniture and crafts from the wood, ranging from a dining room table made from bird's-eye maple to a flaming red-birch softball bat made as a trophy for a little-league softball team. "The wood is totally different than anything I've worked with," says Johns, who praises the wood for its hardness and the crisp clear lines it holds when shaving and routing. "There's a limited supply," says Johns, "that's what makes it special."

Others seem to agree. Microsoft mogul Bill Gates used paneling made from the old wood in the library of his mansion. Other notable sites that have incorporated the wood are the Boeing Building in Seattle and the Saddledome, home of the Calgary Flames hockey team. "We've got architects who are salivating over this wood," says Mitchen.

The wood is also ideal for musical instruments. In fact, the logs now being harvested from the bottom of Lake Superior may one dayproduce some of the freest instruments in the world. The water of the lake chemically altered the fibers of the logs, giving the wood an added resonance for musical instruments. Changes have occurred at the cellular level of the fibers, as anaerobic bacteria in the water ate away certain starchy substances that dampen acoustic vibrations.

Dr. Joseph Nagyvary of the Department of Biochemistry at Texas A&M University, who has researched Superior Water-Logged's wood, believes Antonio Stradivari may have soaked his violins in water, possibly for over 20 years. "When we look at the infrared spectrum, we find this wood from Lake Superior is very similar to that used in a cello by Antonio Stradivari," says Nagyvary. The company is now gathering the wood to make its first violin, traditionally made from maple and spruce. In the meantime, to prove its faith in the product, the company gave country singer Johnny Cash a flat-topped acoustic guitar, handcrafted from a 500-year-old red birch by Chris Hinton, a guitar builder who works for Superior Water-Logged. It will, however, take a lot of diving and a few lucky harvests to compete with the Stradivarius, since; as Hinton notes, only about one in 1,000 of the logs meet the size, weight, and grain pattern required for such world-class violins.

While the prospects for Superior Water-Logged seem promising, the company has recently come upon hard times. Last season, the lumber company salvaged only about 800 logs, and less than 100 of the more valuable hardwoods. They had hoped to salvage 30,000 logs. David Neitzke, president of the company, was hired in late 1997, after the prediction was made. He says that estimate was unrealistic and didn't take into account the bureaucratic obstacles the company would (and continues to) face. Still, he asserts, Superior Water-Logged is in it for the long haul.

Mitchen blames the poor harvest on government red tape and the lack of permits granted by state regulators. "We are literally at the mercy of government regulation, both state and federal," Mitchen says. It may be necessary red tape, however. The company has to apply to the state for each 40-acre area from which it plans to harvest sunken logs. The. requested area is then researched by a number of state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; the Commissioner of Public Lands, the Department of Natural Resources, and the State Historical Society, all of whom make sure the site isn't home to any endangered species or possible historic landmarks, such as sunken vessels.
To make things worse, after the company started showing financially promising results, a swarm of other prospective old-log harvesters came out of the woodwork. "We had a gold rush-type situation on the permits," says Mitchen. "It put a scare in everybody that the whole bottom [of the lake] would be ripped up." The less serious prospectors have largely retreated, however, leaving Superior Water-Logged one of the few remaining underwater logging operations in the area.

Yet the furniture "is selling great," says Leick. "The biggest problem is getting enough wood."
Mitchen remains optimistic. "We're talking billions of board feet of wood," he says, predicting the company will harvest one- to two-million board feet this season alone. (There are about 150 board feet per log.) The company sells the wood for $2.38 to $11.60 a board foot.

The idea just seems too good to die. "You've got the romance," says Mitchen of the logs and furniture, a treasure from the past that becomes a treasure for the future. Mitchen, whose grandfather was a logger, is a romantic when it comes to his company's purpose, which he says isn't purely materialistic. Recalling that many loggers lost their lives chopping down and transporting the timber, Mitchen says that, in his mind's eye, he sees his grandfather gazing down from heaven--as each lost log rises to the water's surface from the muddy bottom of the lake--smiling, and saying, "Our efforts weren't in vain."

You can learn more about Superior Water-Logged by writing them at 2200 East Lake Shore Drive, Ashland, WI 54806 or by calling (715) 685-WOOD.
COPYRIGHT 1998 Sussex Publishers, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group

 

[lobsterman]

check out my recent post.... index of shipwrecks / 1000's of wrecks listed, if you can find a copy of the book " dictionary of disasters at sea " by Charles Hocking, i am sure it would have the info that you are looking for.

many old large passenger steamers have gone down on the great lakes, they may not rival the gallions, but there is certainly gold on some of them, especially on those passenger vessels lost during the large migration era's .

Pat.

 

[coin_diver]

Don't look for the legendary, as they are too late for those of us to pursue
I have reasearched and dove Lk Ontario and the St. Lawrence for 30+ years and I have all of the side scan, video, and research data to go with it. Don't look for the publicized wrecks, the best are those that no one has any idea of. It takes alot of bottom time but the rewards are worth it. You'd be surprised at what these "common" items bring. Not that I have ever found anything!

 

[SASQUASH]

When I was in the CCC in No. Cal. in the 80's. Are job was stream clearens. Taking apart the log jams that where formed in the 20's to 40's when the loggers would cut the trees some times they would roll down to the creak instead of polling them out thy would leave it there & cut a nother one. All the logs that we pulled out where old growth Red Wood. By orders we where tolled to cut it up for are stoves to burn. AHHH if I had it now WOW.

 

[coinshooter]

There was an article a few years ago (maybe up to 5 yrs ago) in Outside magazine about a guy who was a diver in the Great Lakes who ran across all of the old growth logs that they used to float there for shipping to the saw mills. Many of these logs were huge redwoood and hardwood trees. When they would round them up for pulling to the sawmills, many of them would sink while they were being stored near shore. He was diving and ran across hundreds if not thousands of these trees. Because of the fresh water cold water, microorganisms did not get into the wood and all that was needed to cut them was to remove a small amount of the outer coating until the good wood was still there. He filed a claim on these logs and was in the process of harvesting them for the sawmills. I guess he made a ton of money . Who knows, he might still be pulling these off the bottom of the great lakes. I guess each tree was worth a ton of $$$ as "old growth timber". If anyone locates the article let me know. I believe it was a small article in the front of the issue somewhere. 8)

 

[gord]

Several years ago (early to mid '80s) someone went to a lot of effort to recover a cargo of walnut 12x12s from Lake Erie (Canadian side), figuring he was going to make 'a ton of $$$$$$$$'. Last thing I heard (about '95), they were still sitting in his yard, no takers.
Gord

 

[GunFarce]

Back in the 60's we dove for logs in several rivers in Ontario. They were not deep, but still in goods shape. most were down for about 80 years. An 'A' frame on shore with a tractor did fine for pulling them out, they were stacked, and took about a year to dry before we could cut the split ends off them.. Once dry and 'end lopped' the saw mills were glad to take them. They were scaled, and bought by the boardfoot. All were pine, some as large as 5 or more feet across, are probably 'still' there, we couldn't budge them out of the mud. The best find was a 4' x 4' x 8' piece of squared timber oak, found in Georgian bay.. It went to a Undertaker in Owen Sound.. I guess it's all buried someplace by now.. We were paid $800.00 for that piece. "Got Wood"? was a entirely different question back then! :P

 

[da Hobo]

As I recall there's a place called "Ancient Forest" (?) located in Crystal Lake, IL that sales wood from those sunken logs harvested along the western shore of Lake Michigan. I had their address at one time but can't place it right now. I think you can google it and find the info you want. The wood is very nice and VERY expensive from what I hear. Been meaning to drive over there sometime and put an eyeball to it. Who knows, maybe it could be the start of another hobby for me . . . woodworking.

Oh, that's right . . . I'm retired. Forget the "working," maybe carving. lol

Hobo

 

[miester]

In lake Superior on the north shore is a small island called Michipicoten Island. Its close to my hometown, and we did a camping trip there once. I remember seeing three or more wrecked vessels along the shoreline, two in a bay, visible from our campsite. Our campsite was located on the south side of the island, where there were a few small buildings still around, (from a small port or homesite?). I'd bet a ka-jillion dollars no-bodys detected there yet! I believe the Island is about 40 km from mainland.

Do a guided canoe or kayak trip there via www.naturallysuperioradventures.com

Another useless fact: Michipicoten island is the only island on the planet, that has a lake, that has an island with a lake in it.And here I thought I new everything, I have seen islands with lakes,a lot of them,some even with islands but not with another lake, how did you find this fact? I specialize in useless facts. From your Aitar you must be a sledhead like myself, think snow!

 

[onfire]

look up the wreck off poverty island on the michigan side, if your interested in a real or fake treasure, interesting research loar has it much much au brought from France to support the civil war. if found, screw the gov. finders keepers.can t use any metal dectecting equip. to much tackonite.

 

[Badger Bart]

Which wreck would that be? There are several in the area.