Covediver's Underwater World

I am on the trail of a ship, John Duncan, a whale-back steamer that sailed the Great Lakes. Like the Pacific lumber schooners, these vessels were ubiquitous, the water-borne 18-wheelers of their day. The moved lots of cargo and no one really took much notice of them, one was largely indistinguishable from the rest. Yet, they were the backbone of Great Lakes commerce, acting as lubricant that greased the machinery of commerce in the Industrial Age.

What makes this vessel unique to me is that my great grandfater served aboard her as an engineer. He was aboard her when she sank, but all hands were rescued and she was eventually refloated. The mystery is the inscription on the back of the photo indicates she sunk off Whitefish Bay or Fox Point, Wisconsin. Yet the records of the vessel that I have been able to find on line indicate that she sank in Michiagan. Now, tracing the mystery of a sunken vessel is often a exercise in infinite regression, chasing leads that take you down blind paths to dead ends or finding a gold mine of facts through serendipity. I know of this frustration and joy first hand as I co-authored the Submerged Cultural Resource Assessment for Channel Islands National Park a few years back and have written historic property assessments for maritime infrastructure, such as the pier at the Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor and minor aids-to-navigation on San Nicolas Island.

Check back from time-to-time as I will chronicle the documentation of this ship's history on this site.