Explorers find history beneath the waves
Lakeport men discover 1876 schooner wreck
10:02 PM, May 10, 2013
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Diver Mike Lynch swims past the windlass of the Charles H. Walker |
THE WRECK OF THE CHARLES H. WALKER
AT A GLANCE
• The Charles H. Walker, a two-masted schooner that sank in Lake Huron on Sept. 26, 1876, lies in about 36 feet of water about 4 miles east of Lakeport State Park. Coordinates are N43-07-49, W82-25-70.
• The schooner was 136 feet long, 28 feet wide and 11 feet deep. It was built in 1857 in Cleveland by Quayle and Martin.
• It was bound from L’Anse to Erie, Pa. when it sank in rough seas after developing a bad leak.
• The port and starboard sides of the wreck are broken away with iron ore piled on the cargo deck.
• Michigan’s underwater preservation program is administered by the State Historic Preservation Office, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
Source: Research by Paul Schmitt
AT A GLANCE
• The Charles H. Walker, a two-masted schooner that sank in Lake Huron on Sept. 26, 1876, lies in about 36 feet of water about 4 miles east of Lakeport State Park. Coordinates are N43-07-49, W82-25-70.
• The schooner was 136 feet long, 28 feet wide and 11 feet deep. It was built in 1857 in Cleveland by Quayle and Martin.
• It was bound from L’Anse to Erie, Pa. when it sank in rough seas after developing a bad leak.
• The port and starboard sides of the wreck are broken away with iron ore piled on the cargo deck.
• Michigan’s underwater preservation program is administered by the State Historic Preservation Office, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
Source: Research by Paul Schmitt
Paul Schmitt, Dave
Losiniski and Drew Losinksi are filling in Lake Huron’s blanks. The
Lakeport men look for shipwrecks — and they’re going public with one of
their latest discoveries.
The Charles H. Walker, a 136-foot, two-masted schooner, lies in about 35 feet of water about four miles east of Lakeport State Park. The men, said Schmitt, found the vessel in August 2010.
His meticulous research revealed the ship sank in rough seas on Sept. 26, 1876 — the year of the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia and about three months after the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana.
The Charles H. Walker was carrying a load of iron ore from L’Anse in the Upper Peninsula to the smelters of Pennsylvania, according to a story in the Port Huron Times.
“It’s still heaped on the cargo deck,” Schmitt said.
The crew members safely evacuated the ship. Its location was marked by its masts sticking above the surface, so in August 1877, a wrecking tug was reported to have salvaged some of its fittings and cargo.
A retired dean of instruction at St. Clair County Community College, Schmitt said he and Losinski have been looking for shipwrecks for about 20 years and have found several, including the Eliza H. Strong, which was built in 1874 in Marine City. They pulled Losinksi’s son, Drew, into their obsession.
They’ve used soundings and a magnetometer towed behind a boat to look for masses in the lake worth diving on. As the water clarity has increased over the years — because of the invasive zebra and quagga mussels — they’ve taken to the air in a helicopter.
Losiniski actually trained to fly a helicopter and received his license to look for shipwrecks. He now flies helicopters professionally for the Oakland County Sheriff Department.
Schmitt said the searchers were using a helicopter in 2008 to look for the Charles H. Walker, which they knew from his research was somewhere at the bottom of southern Lake Huron near Lakeport.
“We saw a number of targets — probably 25 to 30 dark spots,” he said.
In 2009 and 2010, the team dived on the dark spots, finding in some cases, timber, weed beds and boulders.
“In this particular case, it was a shipwreck,” Schmitt said.
Losinski said part of the allure of his hobby is finding “something nobody knows anything about and putting the pieces of the puzzle back together.”
“We both love diving,” Losinski said, “and my son is into it very big also.”
Schmitt said his purpose in publicizing the wreck is so other people can dive on it. At 36 feet, and in clear water, it’s within the limits of sport diving.
One of the biggest surviving parts of the ship is a windlass used by the crew to lift heavy objects such as anchors and cargo.
“There isn’t too much to loot,” Schmitt said. “The windlass is nice but it’s wood.
“There is an antiquities law,” he said. “Even if you’re not in a (underwater) preserve, it limits what you can salvage and under what circumstances.”
He said he and the Losinskis have known for years the Charles H. Walker was somewhere out there under the waves of Lake Huron. It was gratifying, he said, to not only find it, but to dive on a ship that once was part of the bustling Great Lakes trade.
The Charles H. Walker, a 136-foot, two-masted schooner, lies in about 35 feet of water about four miles east of Lakeport State Park. The men, said Schmitt, found the vessel in August 2010.
His meticulous research revealed the ship sank in rough seas on Sept. 26, 1876 — the year of the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia and about three months after the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana.
The Charles H. Walker was carrying a load of iron ore from L’Anse in the Upper Peninsula to the smelters of Pennsylvania, according to a story in the Port Huron Times.
“It’s still heaped on the cargo deck,” Schmitt said.
The crew members safely evacuated the ship. Its location was marked by its masts sticking above the surface, so in August 1877, a wrecking tug was reported to have salvaged some of its fittings and cargo.
A retired dean of instruction at St. Clair County Community College, Schmitt said he and Losinski have been looking for shipwrecks for about 20 years and have found several, including the Eliza H. Strong, which was built in 1874 in Marine City. They pulled Losinksi’s son, Drew, into their obsession.
They’ve used soundings and a magnetometer towed behind a boat to look for masses in the lake worth diving on. As the water clarity has increased over the years — because of the invasive zebra and quagga mussels — they’ve taken to the air in a helicopter.
Losiniski actually trained to fly a helicopter and received his license to look for shipwrecks. He now flies helicopters professionally for the Oakland County Sheriff Department.
Schmitt said the searchers were using a helicopter in 2008 to look for the Charles H. Walker, which they knew from his research was somewhere at the bottom of southern Lake Huron near Lakeport.
“We saw a number of targets — probably 25 to 30 dark spots,” he said.
In 2009 and 2010, the team dived on the dark spots, finding in some cases, timber, weed beds and boulders.
“In this particular case, it was a shipwreck,” Schmitt said.
Losinski said part of the allure of his hobby is finding “something nobody knows anything about and putting the pieces of the puzzle back together.”
“We both love diving,” Losinski said, “and my son is into it very big also.”
Schmitt said his purpose in publicizing the wreck is so other people can dive on it. At 36 feet, and in clear water, it’s within the limits of sport diving.
One of the biggest surviving parts of the ship is a windlass used by the crew to lift heavy objects such as anchors and cargo.
“There isn’t too much to loot,” Schmitt said. “The windlass is nice but it’s wood.
“There is an antiquities law,” he said. “Even if you’re not in a (underwater) preserve, it limits what you can salvage and under what circumstances.”
He said he and the Losinskis have known for years the Charles H. Walker was somewhere out there under the waves of Lake Huron. It was gratifying, he said, to not only find it, but to dive on a ship that once was part of the bustling Great Lakes trade.
“We’ve been looking all these years — and we found the darn thing,” he said.
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