Theano

[Scott McWilliam]

Dropbox - Theano.pdf

 

[Jared0425]

That was some interesting reading. You guys just missed her according to Ken Merryman as she is 4 miles off Thunder Cape in 330' of water. According to Ken, she is almost pristine with her wooden superstructure intact along with her pilothouse. It seems that you guys got a good wreckage trail, but I think your sidescan missed her. Hopefully Ken and Jerry will give the numbers out for you to complete your well written report/ story. Jerry Eliason wants to find her sister the Leafield somewhere off Angus Island. Her other sister Kiowa is busted up pretty good and was partially salvaged for WWII. Amazing how all 3 ended up wrecked.

 

[Scott McWilliam]

Ken may just be flattering another old Isle Royale diver I am not sure we were all that close. As you can see from our search there were many "possible" locations for this site and we did a great job of finding were the wreck was not. But we checked them all out and learned a lot about the last hours of the ship she bounced off several different Islands and reefs before sinking. The Monkshaven, or what is left of her is still at Angus Island but the Leafield is a mystery. We have one good report of her on the Rocks at Angus and that is it. No idea where she ended up.

 

[Scott McWilliam]

As an after thought . . . many shipwrecks, like the Kamloops were found by diver following wreckage trails ... the fun kind of goes out this when the trail is four miles long and lots of 300'+ deep
water . . .

 

[Jared0425]

The report of the Leafield on the rocks is hotley debated, since there was no other sighting according to Fred Stonehouse for all we know she could be closer to Isle Royal. If the reports are accurate (they rarely are), it should be easy to setup grids. The problem is getting a permit in Ontario to scan in their waters. A wreck will be found when she wants to be found, it took me 5 years to find the Hydrus. I plotted a 20 sq mile grid thinking I had the best info, but it turned out that I had to search around 400sq miles before running across her last July.

Thanks for the correction, the Monkshaven was what I was thinking about.

 

[Scott McWilliam]

Well Leafield is a mystery, I do not know if I would say the account of the Leafield citing is highly debated and I would not agree with Fred Stonehouse in that. The ship disappeared and we have this one and only account of the ship on the rocks at Angus Island. In that citing in the storm, the wheels man on a ship leaving Thunder Bay sees a ship on the North Shore of Angus Island through a storm and remarks to a second mate on the bridge, “isn’t that the Leafield on shore at Angus Island,” the other man responds, no that is the Monkshaven,” they both look and see two wrecks one on the North and one South shore of Angus. The do not alter course to check it out due to the storm and they have no radio to report what they saw.

That is it there has never been as much as a rivet found from her so who knows? Angus is the kind of spot were you can be a stones throw from shore and still be in a four hundred feet of water. It takes a lot of sonar to even find bottom there.

 

[Jared0425]

Are you still active in searching the North Shore? Your efforts will probably be the only one doing surveys for decades to come. The Leafield and Carruthers may not be found for quite awhile unless the Ontario govt grants permits to people like us or other organizations that have the equipment to survey and hunt down lost wrecks.

Your efforts have not gone unnoticed and I appreciate your knowledge in these remote areas.

 

[Scott McWilliam]

Well I am still in the game and I would like to play the last quarter . . . There are a number of shipwreck sites I would like to check out that are on the bucket list. However, we are only given so much time and I am not sure that time is not better spent addressing government, v. diving v. archaeology issues.

I strongly object to archaeology being used to achieve political ends, often by people with degrees in parks and recreation . . . in an attempt to “control” sport divers. So, I stay mobile and like to move around the Great Lakes a lot.