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RESEARCH, EDUCATION & MEDICINE ADVANCED DIVING The Wreck of the Lakeland and the Birth of Mixed-Gas Diving By Tamara Thomsen and Peter Buzzacott On Dec. 1, 1924, the 280-foot steamship Lakeland took on a cargo of 1925- model automobiles in Chicago and departed in a storm for its home port of Cleveland. It was the ship’s last voyage of the season. The Chicago Tribune reported that following Lakeland’s departure from Chicago “some of the steel plates [of her hull] buckled,” causing a leak. The ship’s pumps kept up with the leak, but the captain decided to seek shelter on the evening of Dec. 2 at Sturgeon Bay, Wis., to await calmer weather. According to newspaper reports, after weighing anchor in the early morning of Dec. 3, the leak worsened. The Lakeland’s pumps could no longer keep pace with the leak, and one of the holds filled rapidly. Capt. John McNeely turned about and made for shallow water. At 10 a.m. a lookout at the Sturgeon Bay Coast Guard station observed Lakeland in apparent distress, although no actual distress signal had been given. Initial reports stated that the ship’s engine could no longer provide motive power and meet the demands of its pumps when it was approximately nine miles east of the Door Peninsula (this was later corrected to less than five miles). The captain ordered the majority of the crew to escape in the ship’s lifeboats, while he and four others remained aboard. Two vessels, Ann Arbor No. 6 and Cygnus, arrived on the scene shortly after the first lifeboats were deployed. A Coast Guard cutter out of Sturgeon Bay reached Lakeland at 10:55 a.m. and found one lifeboat in the water carrying Capt. McNeely and the remaining crewmembers. The other 22 crewmembers were already aboard Ann Arbor No. 6. After bringing aboard the last evacuees, Capt. Robert Anderson of the Coast Guard discussed the possibility of towing the foundering vessel to shallow water with Capt. McNeely and the captain of Cygnus, who was willing to make the attempt. McNeely felt that the ship was too far gone and advised against it. Fifteen minutes later, at 11:30 a.m., Lakeland abruptly went down by the stern. The Door County Advocate and Capt. Anderson reported that the hull probably “telescoped” — broke in two. Portions of the cabins and the ship’s hatches were blown 40 feet into NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION–CHICAGO Above: Lakeland sinks as Cygnus stands by. This photo was taken from the deck of Ann Arbor No. 6 by radio operator Elliot Jacobson. the air by the force of air trapped in the hull as the ship went down. It was also believed that the ship’s boilers exploded during her descent, further splintering the vessel. Remarkably, the radio operator aboard Ann Arbor No. 6 managed to take a series of photographs of the sinking. The Lakeland tragedy was thus one of the earliest Great Lakes losses to be photographed. The entire crew escaped, but Lakeland took her cargo of automobiles to the bottom — a depth of more than 200 feet. A week later, attorney S.D. Foster arrived in Sturgeon Bay to investigate the incident on behalf of the insurance underwriters liable for covering the vessel’s loss. Several months later the consortium of insurers decided to investigate the loss, despite the great depth at which the ship lay. Apparently Foster had collected statements from local fishermen who claimed that Lakeland had been running in circles immediately before sounding her distress whistle and sank in calm waters. These circumstances raised the insurers’ suspicions. After a local fisherman located the wreck in the summer of 1925, the insurers contracted Overseas Salvors Inc. of New York to conduct underwater operations. The company was joined by several divers who were on leave from the U.S. Navy and had been involved in research and training in deep-sea diving A piece of Lakeland’s final cargo, a Nash automobile, sits upright on the lakebed off the starboard side of the shipwreck. Much of the upper body sheet metal has deteriorated away, exposing the engine. Below: This photo mosaic of nearly 320 images shows the Lakeland wreck site today. The ship lies on the bottom of Lake Michigan in 200 feet of water. techniques at the Bureau of Mines Experiment Station in Pittsburgh, Pa. Navy diver Clarence L. Tibbals, who had established the Navy’s diving school at Newport, R.I., led the dive team, which consisted of three Overseas Salvors employees — Harry “Big Harry” Reinhartsen, H.A. Grove and S.J. Drellishak — and two Navy personnel — G.F. Smith and Joseph Eiven. Drellishak was a former Navy diver who had been involved in the 1915 effort to salvage the Navy’s F-4 submarine from the bottom of Honolulu Harbor, during which members of that dive team reached a record depth of up to 306 feet. 44 | SUMMER 2016
TAMARA THOMSEN WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION/ WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY Tibbals’ team would be the first to field-test a new mixed-gas diving system that used a heliumoxygen mixture. The possibility of using helium as a component of a breathable mixed-gas medium had been proposed as early as 1919, but no dives had yet been conducted with it. Researchers at that time believed that replacing nitrogen, a naturally occurring component of air, with helium would reduce the amount of time divers would be required to spend in As the ship went down, trapped air from the hull blew hatches and wooden deckhouses more than 40 feet into the air. decompression after deep dives. It was later discovered that helium prevented nitrogen narcosis during deep dives, but it also introduced new challenges. Prior to the Lakeland dives, decompression tables for helium-oxygen diving had been developed by researchers working at the Bureau of Mines Pittsburgh Experiment Station through a joint program with the U.S. Navy Bureau of Construction and Repair. Decompression tables were critical because they were ALERTDIVER.COM | 45
Page 1 and 2: THE MAGAZINE OF DIVERS ALERT NETWOR
Page 3 and 4: Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe BLANCPAIN
Page 5 and 6: Diving and Travel Adventures Save 2
Page 7 and 8: Respond Smarter With DAN First Aid
Page 9 and 10: FEATURING LINING Immerse yourself i
Page 12 and 13: FROM THE SAFETY STOP PERSPECTIVES E
Page 14 and 15: FROM THE SAFETY STOP PUBLISHER’S
Page 16 and 17: FROM THE SAFETY STOP LETTERS FROM M
Page 18 and 19: DIVE SLATE 16 REMEMBERING THE ANDRE
Page 20 and 21: DIVE SLATE ANDREA DORIA As a result
Page 22 and 23: DIVE SLATE CASHES LEDGE CASHES LEDG
Page 24 and 25: DIVE SLATE CASHES LEDGE From left:
Page 26 and 27: DIVE SLATE THE CLICK EFFECT FRED BU
Page 28 and 29: BONNIE TOTH By Maurine Shimlock Hom
Page 30 and 31: DIVE SLATE DAN PSA, EDUCATION AND T
Page 32 and 33: ENCOUNTERS PRETTY BOYS Text and pho
Page 34 and 35: DIVE FITNESS The DAN Guide to Healt
Page 36 and 37: LOCAL DIVING DIVING GEORGIA’S JEW
Page 38 and 39: LOCAL DIVING GRAY’S REEF business
Page 40 and 41: LIFE AQUATIC PARROTFISH: GRAZERS OF
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Page 44 and 45: RESEARCH, EDUCATION & MEDICINE DAN
Page 48 and 49: RESEARCH, EDUCATION & MEDICINE ADVA
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Page 66 and 67: Be Ready To Respond Every day, dive
Page 68 and 69: [ ast of lores INDONESIA’S ALOR A
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Page 72 and 73: sinister sneering dogtooth tuna and
Page 74 and 75: urrow like liquid mercury to move a
Page 76 and 77: Curaçao AN ISLAND TO OURSELVES [ T
Page 78 and 79: One of the mostphotographed waterfr
Page 80 and 81: een relieved of her booze, but dive
Page 82 and 83: “WE MAKE OUR DIVERS SAFER, SO THE
Page 84 and 85: etain their null hypothesis: Trimix
Page 86 and 87: Above: NEDU’s Executive Officer L
Page 88 and 89: [ BY THE PHYSIOLOGY OF COMPRESSED-G
Page 90 and 91: Hb is normally 97 percent saturated
Page 92 and 93: IMAGING 92 SHOOTER 100 PHOTO TECHNI
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IMAGING SHOOTER 94 | SUMMER 2016
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IMAGING SHOOTER a secretary at the
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IMAGING SHOOTER Chandelier Cave, Pa
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IMAGING PHOTO TECHNIQUES THE BIG LI
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IMAGING PHOTO TECHNIQUES COMPOSITIO
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WATER PLANET CONTINUING A TRADITION
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MEMBER TO MEMBER THANKS TO SCUBA, T
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GEAR ACCESSORIZE YOUR DIVE By Reill
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MARKETPLACE We can attach any under
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PARTING SHOT By Imran Ahmad Among W
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ITS MOST POWERFUL FEATURE IS YOU. Y
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