NAUI - 50 Years of Diving History and still Growing! - Midwest Scuba ...

SUNKEN TREASURES: THE STRAITS OF MACKINACMackinac, a five mile wide waterway thatconnects Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Itwas never easy to get from one half of the stateto the other. Up through the first part of thetwentieth century, people had always reliedupon privately operated boats and ferries toget from one half of the state to the other.Citizens were annoyed with the unreliableavailability of regular transportation and madetheir representatives in the state legislatureaware of their displeasure. So it was that,in 1923, the State of Michigan began a stateowned and operated ferry service acrossthe straits. The steamship, The Straits ofMackinac, was the third ferry to be put to thisservice. (Interestingly, the word, “The” is partof the registered name of this vessel.) She wasbuilt for the Michigan Department of StateHighways and began service carrying cars andtrucks across the straits in 1928. At nearly200 feet long with a beam of 48 feet she wasa sturdy, seaworthy coal-fired steamship andshe served the state well until the MackinacBridge was built and opened in November of1957.When the Mackinac Bridge opened, the fleetof ferries was decommissioned. In 1959 TheStraits of Mackinac was sold to Straits Transit,Inc. She continued to serve as a ferry carryingfreight and passengers to and from MackinacIsland until 1968.In 1969 The Straits of Mackinac was sold to theSturgeon Bay shipbuilder, Peterson Builders,Inc. She was moved to Sturgeon Bay whereshe was used as a floating warehouse. Withvirtually no maintenance, she deterioratedover the years and eventually her woodendecks, exposed wooden cabins and other suchstructures became a hazard and were removed.Eventually, in 1994, she was sold to a Greeksalvage company and moved to a dock inKewaunee, Wisconsin. Unfortunately, shortlyafter the sale, the owner of the firm died andThe Straits of Mackinac was left abandoned.After a few years, a weather beaten, vandalizedhulk of the once majestic steamship was left,grounded, in the shallow waters of the harborat Kewaunee.A Green Bay area dive club, Neptune’sNimrods, found the old ferry there in Kewauneeand, in the year 2000 assumed control of thewreck with the intention of sinking it as a wreckdiving attraction near Algoma. They pumpedout the bilges to re-float the hull. They begancleaning out the ship and started the process ofgetting the permits and approvals they wouldneed from all of the governmental entitieshaving jurisdiction. While these effortsprogressed, the marina at which the ferryrested was sold. The new owners wanted thewreck removed as a condition of the sale. InMay of 2002 Neptune’s Nimrods were giventhirty days to move it out.The club was not yet ready to sink the wreckand they did not have another place to storeit. They also lacked the resources to pay for aseaworthiness inspection or to have it towed.It began to look as if The Straits of Mackinacwould end her career in the scrap yard.Just then a white knight appeared. A group ofdivers from the Chicago area stepped up to takeresponsibility for the vessel.The Tim Early Foundation,a 503c corporation, and PatHammer, owner of ScubaEmporium, put togetherthe Mackinac Foundationwhich took ownership forthe purchase price of $1.00.It was June of 2002 whenthey had the ship toweddown to Chicago. A trulyHerculean effort followed.Many Chicago area diversvolunteered their time anddonated their money to helpwith the project. In only tenmonths they had the shipcleaned up and had all of thebureaucratic red tape signedand sealed so that they couldsink the old girl off of thenorth shore of Chicago.Diving The Straits ofMackinacNow, The Straits of Mackinacis a very popular destinationfor recreational scuba divers.Resting in eighty feet ofwater she is easily accessibleto most divers. Dive charterboats from Burnham Harbormake the twelve mile tripout to this wreck on a regularbasis. Enterprise also makesthe trip from Waukeganfor all day, four-tank divetrips. Approaching the site,we usually see one or twopermanent moorings. On arecent visit we found onlyone but, luckily, there wasno one else there when wearrived. Another dive boatcame while we were preparing to get in thewater so we gave them a stern line and theytied up to us. On this day I wanted to takesome pictures of the wreck so I was diving.My partner and co-captain, Dave Manchester,would stay on the boat.I splashed with my trusty Nikonos III (I haven’tgone digital yet.) and swam to the front ofthe boat. Two other divers, Steve and Bob,were right behind me. Normally, there are twomoorings on The Straits of Mackinac, one atthe stern and one at the bow. Since there wasonly one this day I was not sure which onewe were tied up to. I wanted to photographthe engine room, so I was hoping we were tiedSPRING 2008 MIDWEST SCUBA DIVING 23