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HOW TO DIVE IT<br />
Getting There<br />
Milwaukee is an easy airport to access, with many direct<br />
flights there available. Visitors driving from the<br />
Chicago area can take I-94 straight into Milwaukee.<br />
WISCONSIN<br />
Milwaukee<br />
S.S. Milwaukee<br />
Prins Willem V<br />
Grace Channon<br />
Conditions<br />
Kenosha<br />
May through September are the best months for<br />
S.S. Wisconsin<br />
diving. Air temperatures are typically between 50°F<br />
and 80°F, with conditions ranging from dense fog to<br />
bright sun. Water temperatures vary by time of year<br />
and depth. June water temperatures are in the high-<br />
30s°F or 40s°F, but late in August water temps can be 50°F-60°F. There is typically little or no current<br />
on the wrecks, and most have at least one mooring buoy for ascents and descents.<br />
Topside Adventure<br />
There are plenty of things to see and do in Milwaukee. The Denis Sullivan is a three-masted replica<br />
schooner similar to what you would have seen plying these waters more than a century ago.<br />
Milwaukee also has many museums, breweries, lighthouses, parks and excellent food.<br />
LAKE MICHIGAN<br />
destinations, and I believe that the Great Lakes are<br />
among them. The wrecks here are frozen in time,<br />
preserved by the cold, fresh water. Many of the wooden<br />
steamers and schooners have sat intact for more than<br />
a century; they would no longer exist if they were in<br />
salt water. Diving in the lakes is like peering into a<br />
time capsule: Here you can read the ships’ names, see<br />
cargo such as automobiles from the 1920s, find intact<br />
schooners with rigging still in place and much more.<br />
I’ve made a half-dozen trips to various places on the<br />
lakes, most recently Milwaukee, Wis. There’s much<br />
more to Milwaukee than cheese and beer: It’s a wreckdiving<br />
wonderland for those adventurous enough to<br />
take the plunge. The dives range in depth from just<br />
10 feet to more than 300.<br />
S.S. MILWAUKEE<br />
Our first destination was the S.S. Milwaukee, a<br />
railroad-car ferry that once conducted year-round,<br />
cross-lake service for the Grand Trunk Railroad.<br />
The ship went down in a storm Oct. 22, 1929, killing<br />
its crew of approximately 50. It was carrying 27<br />
railcars filled with wood veneer, vegetables, cheese,<br />
butter, bathroom fixtures, corn, feed, seed, malt and<br />
automobiles. After 1920 all railroad car ferries were<br />
retrofitted with a clamshell transom called a sea gate<br />
to prevent waves from coming aboard in a following<br />
sea. The Milwaukee’s sea gate was bent in by the<br />
tremendous waves of the gale that sank the ship. Water<br />
entered at the stern and filled the lower compartments.<br />
Rail cars broke free and smashed through the side of<br />
the hull. The sea gate unhinged on the starboard side<br />
when a refrigerator car’s wheel trucks broke through<br />
it as the ship was sinking. The 338-foot steel-hulled<br />
Milwaukee went down just seven miles northeast of<br />
Milwaukee, three miles offshore in 120 feet of water.<br />
As you descend onto the wreck, its reinforced, icebreaking<br />
bow comes into view, standing upright on<br />
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