Diving report: Wells Burt wreck, Lake Michigan, off Evanston, IL

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Marie13

Great Lakes Mermaid
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Yesterday, I did both charters (morning and afternoon) on my local charter boat, Sun Dog (Double Action Dive Charters). I have a season pass for the boat.

We did four wrecks, the Louisville (wooden propeller steamer, sunk in 1857), a new wreck known as the "mystery barge" (I didn't do this dive as I didn't like the surface conditions), The Straits of Mackinac (a coal-fired car ferry that operated between the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan from 1928 to 1956 when the Mackinac Bridge opened - this wreck was sunk in Lake Michigan in the late 2000s as fish habitat and diver attraction), and the Wells Burt.

The Wells Burt was a triple-masted wooden schooner, massive at 201 ft long (201' x 33'5" x 14'2"). She was built in 1873 and sank in a storm off Evanston, IL, in May 1883, going down with all 11 hands. Despite a lot of wreckage, none of the crew were ever found. She is almost entirely intact, amazing for a wreck only 40ft deep. This is my favorite local wreck. The deadeyes are the highlight of this site for me. They were used to manage the rigging.

Pics and video were taken with an Intova Nova HD. This is a small waterproof camera with the camera body built into the floating housing. It was only $140 off Amazon a couple of years ago. Video isn't the greatest, but it gives you an idea of this awesome wreck.

Some more advanced divers have shrugged off this wreck to me, saying it's too shallow for them to bother with. Their loss! It's just incredible. What makes it even more incredible is that it survived so intact at just 40 ft, not having been beaten to pieces by the winter ice and wind. I've read that ice on the Great Lakes can go as deep as 70 ft. And with this shallow of a wreck, you can spend more time on it.

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These pics from the NOAA Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary Museum in Alpena, MI (where I was diving a month ago) show how the deadeyes were used. The museum has a full-sized replica of a canal schooner, representative of what would have been on the Great Lakes in the latter quarter of the 19th Century.

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The top half of this book cover shows the Wells Burt, in a painting commissioned by one of her owners. The painting is still in the family.

The bottom half shows the Carl D. Bradley, which sank in northern Lake Michigan in 1958, after breaking in two on the surface in a raging storm.

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Water temp was 53F at 39ft on the Wells Burt.

It was 48F at 73ft on an earlier wreck yesterday.

I'm diving dry again, and while I have no problem with the cold diving wet, it's definitely more comfortable diving dry. I do have to get the p-valve switched from my old drysuit to the new once it arrives (the new one was taking longer than expected to arrive so my LDS (DRIS) loaned me a suit from the rental fleet).

There were a pair of brothers, originally from Florida with many dives, who now work in the Midwest. They had done cold water diving once before, off Seattle, but decided to sample the Great Lakes. One of them couldn't handle the amount of neoprene needed, and so neither did a dive. They did snorkel around the boat some. And enjoyed seeing Chicago from the Lake as we did the 25 mile ride back to the Hammond, IN marina from the Wells Burt (and the Mac).

I got a gorgeous pic of the Chicago skyline from the boat.
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Videos. I'll readily admit they aren't the best, but they give you an idea of the awesomeness of this wreck (camera skills are improving). I'm much more a stills person.


 
One of the divers (pretty new) on the morning charter complimented me on my buoyancy. I went :flowers: as it's been a long hard road for that skill!
 
Some more advanced divers have shrugged off this wreck to me, saying it's too shallow for them to bother with. Their loss! It's just incredible.
I've never understood that attitude. Shallow water means longer NDL and air times, so you get more time to enjoy the dive and explore. The light is usually a lot better, too, if you like to take available light pictures or video. I have done most of my dives in Cozumel and my usual op knows that I'm not interested in going deep just to go deep because I want to take pictures of the pretty fishies, so I go where they go. If the thing to see is a wreck, I go where it is.

One of the divers (pretty new) on the morning charter complimented me on my buoyancy. I went :flowers: as it's been a long hard road for that skill!
I did my first fresh water diving in a long time a couple of weeks ago with a group of new divers as well as a couple of more experienced guys. I overheard one of those guys deliver some sage wisdom about buoyancy being much harder in fresh water than in salt water. That sounded like total crap to me, but maybe he meant that buoyancy is much harder in fresh water because we were all in 7 mm suits and most of us go where the salt water is warm enough to not need a wet suit. Have you managed to do a salt water dive yet? You might find the Caribbean to be too easy and boring if he was right!

I'd love to go see the Wells Burt some day. I can't believe it is that cold, though, even that shallow. Brrr. Is the visibility always that good? It looks like you got a good portion of that 201' length into your pictures; it must have been 30'+ vis.
 
@kmarks

I last dove the Wells Burt in late May. I think viz was about the same. Temp was a bit colder. :wink:. I think it was 48F.

I haven’t hit salt water yet.
 
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