Skin Diving and Historical Research

WRECK of the "Lafayette," 1906, in Duluth harbor

JULIUS F. WOLFF, JR.

SINCE THE END of Worid War II, skin dium for enthusiastic marine investigation. diving, a sport new to the Middle West, Since 1953, the "Frigid Frogs," as members has developed substantial popularity. Dur of the Duluth club are cafled, have exam ing the last three years, members of the ined a number of wrecked ships lost along Duluth Skin-Divers' Club have demon the North Shore of the lake in the past strated that this form of aquatic recreation sixty years. Successful dives have been can be an important aid to the student of made on these derelicts, and some interest history. By means of skin-diving equip ing artifacts have been recovered that tell ment, the aquatic-minded historian can re long-forgotten tales of earlier Minnesota cover artifacts of the past, which formerly conditions."^ could be retrieved only by professional Members of the club have examined quite divers using expensive marine diving equip carefully two ships sunk in the great bliz ment. The prerequisites of skin diving are zard of November 28, 1905, named by few — a respectable agility at swimming, saflors the "Mataafa blow" after the spec a watertight mask, fins, and aqualung, tacular wreck of the steamer "Mataafa" perhaps a rubber suit, and a body of clear, at Duluth. One of these was the hulk of the deep water of historical interest. Lake Superior affords an excellent me- ' The efforts of the Duluth club have been the subject of comment in issues of the Duluth Herald and the Duluth News-Tribune for July and August, MR. WOLFF, who IS associate professor of politi 1955. See especially the feature section of the latter for July 24, 1955. Fuller information on "Shipwrecks cal science in the University of Minnesota, of the North Shore of Lake Superior," may be found Duluth Branch, serves as historian of the Frigid in a mimeographed pamphlet by the author, a copy Frogs, a club composed of skin divers from the ot which is in the possession of the Minnesota His Duluth area. torical Society.

278 MINNESOTA History Pittsburgh Steamship Company's barge sections on the north end of Encampment "Madeira." Towed by the "S. S. Wifliam Island, at Lafayette Bluff some half-dozen Edenborn," the "Madeira" was cut loose miles northeast of Two Harbors. The stern, when it appeared that both vessels would or engine section of the vessel, was sal be driven on the rocky North Shore of Lake vaged the following year. The skin divers Superior by the howling gale. After being found that the bow portion had been re tossed about for some three hours, the duced to little more than scrap metal, "Madeira" was hurled against Gold Rock, scattered over hundreds of square yards the first promontory northeast of Split of lake bottom between the mainland and Rock Lighthouse, where it broke in two. Encampment Island, but several attractive Seven of the eight-man crew were almost items were discovered. Among them was a miraculously rescued by the superhuman forty-four caliber Winchester repeating rope work of a seaman named Fred Benson, rifle of a type patented in 1860, which may who cast a line from the bobbing and sink have belonged to the captain or the mate ing bow to the overhanging cliffs, pulling of the fll-fated ship. It was probably used himself and six crewmen to safety.^ to "persuade" the high-spirited sailors of Skin divers found the bow of the "Ma the day to peaceable ways. ,The gun's mag deira" in thirty-five feet of water, with the azine was still loaded, and the action was midships nearly flattened by the blow still workable after immersion for more against Gold Rock. Typical wreckage of a than fifty years. An ornamental brass steel ship littered the lake bottom-— standard, probably the stand of the ship's chains, plates, beams, bolts, and pipe binnacle, also was recovered along with a fittings. The deck boiler and towing en considerable amount of copper tubing, steel gines had been salvaged shortly after the rivets, brass pulleys, chains, and other simi disaster, but the anchors were still securely lar objects.^ cradled, and the name plate was clearly legible. The divers recovered letters from ANOTHER shipwreck which has engaged the name plate, miscellaneous brass fittings, the attention of the Duluth skin divers is and small pieces of wreckage. The "Eden that of the "Belle P. Cross," sunk in Aprfl, born" also had been wrecked several mfles 1903, at the mouth of the Gooseberry westward, but it had been salvaged in 1906, River in what is now Gooseberry State leaving little worth diving for. Park. The "Cross," a small coastal lumber A second victim of the "Mataafa" storm steamer, was driven off course by an April of 1905 often investigated by the Frigid blizzard and was smashed on the rocky Frogs is the "S. S. Lafayette," another shore. The crew was saved. Since the Pittsburgh Steamship Company boat, "Cross" was a wooden steamer, it had which went aground and broke into three largely disintegrated, but the divers were able to recover portions of pipes and valves - The "Mataafa blow," is described in News- Tribune. November 29, 30, December 1, 2, 3, 1905; bearing manufacturers' stamps of the E. 0. Whitney, "The Storm of 1905," in Inland Seas, 1880s. The flywheel and portions of the 2:58 (January, 1946); and Dana T. Bowen, Memories engines were located in some sixty feet of of the Lalces, 210-244 (Daytona Beach, Florida, 1946). A discussion of the wrecks of the "Madeira" water, but these have not been recovered. and the "Edenborn" may be found in Edward J. One of the most interesting finds was ap Dowling, "The 'Tin Stackers': The Story of the Ships parently a part of the ship's cargo — a of the Pittsburgh Steamship Company," in Inland Seas, 9:84, 176 (Summer, Fall, 1953), See also Silas mid-nineteenth century type horse-drawn Hunter, "Winter Brings Woe to Lake Ships," in U.S. plow, which is now in the possession of the Steel News, 4-7 (December 5, 1937). St. Louis County Historical Society. The "See Fred W. Button, "Hulls and Engines," in plow serves as a reminder that sixty years Inland Seas, 8:134 (Summer, 1952), and Dowling, in the same magazine, 9:277 (Winter, 1953). ago farming was seriously undertaken in

June 1957 279 A skin diver examining a salvaged gun

sections of Cook County now considered harbor. Good life boat discipline saved the entirely unsuited for agriculture.'' entire crew, but the "Onoko" went to the In the summer of 1956, the Frigid Frogs bottom in a matter of minutes. Unfortu dove on the wreck of the "S. S. America," nately, the approximate location of this off Washington Harbor, Isle Royale. The wreck is in water charted as over two- "America," a coastal passenger and freight hundred-and-fifty feet deep, making in vessel, had brushed a reef, ripping its hull vestigation a hazardous undertaking for badly, in June, 1928. No lives were lost, skin divers.*^ but the ship was hastily abandoned, and it Somewhere between Knife River and sank at an angle in eighty-five feet of Duluth lies the "Benjamin Noble," a two- water. Although commercial divers had hundred-and-fifty-six-foot steel steamer examined the craft, the Duluth club found laden with rafls, which disappeared with the contents of the ship more or less intact, afl hands during a violent storm in April, and the skin divers recovered dishes, cloth 1914. Although the "Noble" never has been ing, furniture, and many mementos of located, it apparently lies in water of sailing life in the 1920s. Of particular reasonable depth for skin diving not too interest was a model T Ford truck in the far out of Duluth, because wreckage from ship's hold, which was neatly loaded with the ship has been cast up on Park Point plumbing equipment en route from Duluth a few miles east of the Duluth ship canal." to Port Arthur.^ Off Isle Royale are many wrecks, includ-

A NUMBER OF other Lake Superior * For accounts of the sinking of the "Cross," see wrecks offer possibilities for investigation. News-Tribune, May 1, 2, 1903. Of perhaps greatest historical interest is "See News-Tribune, June 9, 1928; W, R, Williams, the hulk of the "Onoko," the first iron "Shipwrecks at Isle Royale," in Inland Seas, 12:256 (Winter, 1956), freight ship buflt on the Great Lakes. It "For information on the "Onoko," see News- was launched in 1882 and sank in Septem Tribune, September 15, 1915, and Bowen, Lore of the ber, 1915, off Knife Island along the North Lalces, 225 (Daytona Beach, 1940), Shore of Lake Superior, after mysteriously 'On the "Noble," see News-Tribune, April 29, 30, May 1, 1914, and Bowen, Shipwrecks of the Lakes, springing a leak only an hour out of Duluth 250-253 (Daytona Beach, 1952),

280 MINNESOTA History ing that of the Canadian Pacific steamer, fished inland lakes in the state. Thus, skin "Algoma," sunk in 1885 with a loss of diving may produce some surprising and thirty-seven lives, apparently the largest interesting historical discoveries in the next loss of life in the history of Lake Superior lew years. navigation. The passenger steamer "George There are, however, some limitations to M. Cox" lies in deep water near Rock of this form of research. Because a skin diver Ages Light off the western end of Isle needs clear water and a solid bottom, Royale, where it foundered after running many rivers and lakes in Minnesota are aground in a fog in May, 1933. Of sinister unsuitable for investigation because of attraction, too, is the wreck of the "Kam- sfltation or vegetation. Moreover, to be loops," owned by the Canada Steamship recoverable with most current equipment, Lines, Limited, which sank with all hands articles should lie in water less than a aboard near the west shore of Isle Royale hundred feet deep. This factor precludes in December, 1927. Some day, with more any great potential for skin-diving research effective equipment, skin divers will be in Lake Superior, where the water is, for able to investigate these and many other the most part, much deeper. Further, skin vessels.^ divers should be carefully trained, dis ciplined, and supervised, since carelessness SKIN DIVERS can also be used to recover represents a substantial danger to life. artifacts of the past in other areas of Even with these limitations, however, skin Minnesota. It would seem probable, for diving has valuable potentialities for the example, that the lakes along the state's student of histoiy in Minnesota, and its northern border hide unsuspected artifacts possibilities as a research tool should not used in fur-trading days, for several an be overlooked. cient rifles have been recovered from Lake Saganaga. Grand Portage Bay, too, should THE "America" at Isle Royale in the 1920s prove fertile ground for seeking articles lost in the fur-trading heyday of the im portant post on its shores. Several years ago a sport fisherman at Mille Lacs Lake hooked up an eighteenth-century rifle, in dicating research possibflities there, since several fur-trading posts were once located on the lake. Areas where log-driving opera tions were once carried on might furnish additional items connected with that as pect of Minnesota's past, and a complete history of the evolution and use of various types of fishing lures in Minnesota might be written from careful scrutiny of heavily

* For fuller discussions of the wrecks of these ships, see Williams, in Inland Seas, 12:253, 256; News- Tribune, December 8, 14, 15, 17, 24, 1927, May 28, 1933; Bowen, Lore of the Lakes, 176; and the same author's Shipwrecks of the Lakes, 122-133, 250-253, 308-312.

THE PHOTOGRAPH on page 278 is from the collec tion of the St. Louis County Historical Society at Du luth. That on page 280 was obtained by the author from the Duluth Herald-Tribune.

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