 |
|
Isle Royale National Park
|
|
Isle Royale National Park was certainly not originally established for the purpose of preserving shipwrecks. It is tempting, however, to ascribe some grand scheme to the existence of such a dramatic assortment of wrecked vessels within the protected waters of a national park. The island is literally surrounded by an array of ship remains that represent many types and stages of development of maritime steam technology from the 1870s to the mid-1900s. This assortment includes passenger/package freighters, bulk freighters, a side-wheeler, wooden-hulled ships and steel behemoths more than 500 feet in length, one of which went down as recently as 1947. If one were given the opportunity of designing an underwater museum of Great Lakes marine architecture, it is likely that it would differ only slightly from what is presently in the waters around Isle Royale.
The nature of the underwater environment around Isle Royale contributes much to the Parks aura of being an underwater museum. The more modern, intact wrecks such as America, Emperor and Congdon attract most of the first-timers, because they comprise a superlative underwater experience. |
 |
|
| Very few places in the world offer shipwrecks with such a presence in conditions that highlight the other-worldliness of the diving experience. It is possible to swim down companionways, through stateroom doors, up stairs and over engines that appear as if it would take only a head of steam to bring them back to life. Old-fashioned shoes amid the confusion of crushed bulkheads bring home the poignant personal tragedy that was experienced by so many crew and passengers and the surviving families.
The SRC (then known as SCRU) worked intensively at Isle Royale from 1980 to 1986. This is where the team refined its approach to mapping and interpreting large shipwreck sites. The use of low-tech, high diving intensity procedures evolved hereincluding baseline mapping with trilateration as a signature approach of the NPS team. |
|
- September 1986 documentation of deep sites in association with National Geographic (Emory Kristof) and BBC (Discoveries Underwater Series). Daniel Lenihan, Project Director.
- August-September 1985 Isle Royale shipwreck documentation including video and ROV documentation of Algoma site. Daniel Lenihan, Project Director.
- July 1984 Shipwreck documentation. Daniel Lenihan, Project Director; Larry Murphy, Supervisory Archeologist. Toni Carrell supervisory archeologist over non-shipwreck submerged sites documentation.
- June 1983 Documentation of passenger steamer George M. Cox, bulk freighters Glenlyon, Chester A. Congdon and Emperor. Daniel Lenihan, Project Director.
- June 1982 Shipwreck mapping and evaluation of wrecks within Isle Royale National Park. Course for rangers and sport divers in shipwreck management, skills and issues. Daniel Lenihan, Project Director; Larry Murphy, Supervisory Archeologist.
- June 1981 Evaluation, assessment and mapping of packet steamer Monarch, passenger steamer America, side-wheeler Cumberland, and bulk freighter Henry Chisholm. Daniel Lenihan, Project Director, Larry Murphy, Supervisory Archeologist.
- July 1980 Assessment of 10 commercial steam carriers and remote sensing survey (magnetometry and side scan sonar) and site investigation. Initial phase for National Park Service shipwreck management model development. Daniel Lenihan, Larry Murphy and Toni Carrell.
References:
- Lenihan, Daniel J., Editor, 1987, Submerged Cultural Resources Study: Isle Royale National Park. Submerged Resources Center Professional Report No. 5. National Park Service, Santa Fe, NM.
- Lenihan, Daniel J., 2002, Chapters 2, 11, and 14 in Submerged: Adventures of Americas Most Elite Underwater Archeology Team, Newmarket Press, NY. Distrubuted by Best Publishing
- Lenihan, Daniel J., Principal Investigator, 1994, Shipwrecks of Isle Royale National Park: The Archeological Survey, Lake Superior Port Cities, Inc.
|
|
|
|
Related Links
Isle Royale National Park
Shipwrecks of Isle Royale National Park: The Archeological Survey
|
|
|
|
