When I first approached Keith Meverden and Tamara Thomsen, maritime archaeologists with the Wisconsin Historical Society, about coming to dive with them in October two things must have gone through their minds.
Firstly, why does someone want to come all the way from New Zealand to dive with them in the Great Lakes especially in October? And secondly, what are we going to do with him?
As Keith and Tami were to find out I am hugely interested in shipwrecks, and even as far away as the other side of the world, the Great Lakes have a reputation for having some of the best preserved wooden shipwrecks around
Fortunately for me although it was coming to the end of their field season Keith and Tami decided to take me on and organized some projects for my time in Madison. By the time I arrived in Wisconsin the Lakes were beginning to get pretty cold but this did not dampen my enthusiasm as I had heard that the visibility of the Lakes was amazing and this combined with the fantastically preserved shipwrecks meant that I was very keen to get out diving and I can promise you that it did not disappoint!
Our first day of diving saw us taking the boat out to the wreck of the Ocean Wave a wooden schooner which sank in 1869. As we entered the water and descended I caught my breath as the wreck came into view although she had been sitting on the lake bed for 140 years the Ocean Wave was amazingly intact with her bowsprit still standing and eagle figure head still clearly evident. What made this dive even more incredible was the visibility which was at least 40 metres something I had never experienced before in any of my diving around the world.
I was also really stoked when Tami who is a TDI instructor offered to help me get my advanced nitrox and decompression procedures certifications so that I could explore some of their deeper wrecks during my stay. Over the next few weeks I completed my courses and managed to dive a number of amazing wrecks including the Daniel Lyons, Fleet Wing, Frank O’Connor, Australasia and ultimately the Rouse Simmons and the Walter B Allen which both sit around 50 metres.
At the end of my time in Wisconsin it was hard to leave knowing that I might never get a chance to dive such fantastically preserved shipwrecks in such great visibility again – but it was a great opportunity to see the hard work that Keith and Tamara do to protect this fragile resource so that people from all over the world will be able to come and literally dive into the past for years to come.
