By D. Holden Bailey

Thanks to the movie Titanic, a lot of people got a glimpse of how quickly a pleasant sea voyage can turn to horror, and this can happen just as easily on the Great Lakes. Ask any professional sailor and he'll tell you the Lakes can be just as hazardous as the open ocean.

Bordered on three sides by Great Lakes Michigan, Superior, and Huron, Michigan has seen more that its share of shipwrecks. In 1980, in an effort to protect the wrecks for future generations, the state created the Michigan Bottomlands Preserves, nine areas totalling 1,900 square miles.

At least eighty of Michigan's many shipwrecks are concentrated in the Thunder Bay Underwater Preserve. Centred around the small town of Alpena on Michigan's northeast coast, this preserve encompasses 288 square miles of Lake Huron.

Ships can be lost in numerous ways. Thumb through the annals of Great Lakes shipwrecks and you'll find wrecks caused by foundering in heavy seas, being driven onto reefs or shores by gale force winds, collision with other ships, explosions, fires, and striking floating ice. And then there is the dreaded "incautious course change".

After the 470 foot German freighter Nordmeer stranded on Thunder Bay Shoal in 1966, the Coast Guard laid the blame on the ship's first mate, concluding that the grounding occurred because of his "incautious course change." Jagged rocks ripped her bottom out, and she settled upright in 40 feet of water, her superstructure still above the surface. Most of the ship's crew were taken off by an ore carrier that had responded to the ship's distress signals, but the captain and seven crew members stayed aboard to supervise salvage operations. Several days later, a November gale struck the stranded ship, battering it with tremen dous, 22foot waves of icy water and blanketing it with more than a foot of wet snow. The crew was safely taken off the disintegrating ship by a Coast Guard helicopter. In the intervening years, gales and ice have taken their toll on the wreck, shearing off most of the above water structure a piece at a time. The hull is still intact and large open cargo hatches allow easy penetration for properly trained and equipped divers. The ship's diesel engine remains in place. The shallower portions of this wreck are excellent for divers new to wreck diving. Close by lies the wreckage of a wooden salvage barge.

During the era of wooden ships, many were lost to fires, as was the 236foot sidewheeler Montana. When launched in 1872, the Montana's construction was state of the art, but by the time she was lost, in 1914, she was an aging, worn vessel, having been rebuilt several times. After a fire broke out and quickly grew out of control, the crew abandoned ship and helplessly watched as their vessel burned to the waterline and sank. She now sits upright at 70 feet, her hull relatively intact. The massive boiler can be reached at 30 feet, and the rudder and propeller are still in place. The ship's windlass, capstan, and anchor chain are still there.

Also lost to fire was the 218foot wooden steamer Oscar T. Flint. Bound for Duluth in November 1909, with the barge Redington in tow, the Flint anchored in Thunder Bay for repairs to an air pump. Late that night, while the crew slept, a lantern apparently exploded and set the ship on fire. Unable to bring the fire under control, the rudely awakened crewmen, along with their barefoot captain, were forced to abandon ship. Like the Montana, it also burned to the waterline before sinking, settling in 30 feet of water. The ship has since been broken up by storms. A sizable portion of the hull is intact, still filled with its cargo of limestone. A partial prop survived the sinking, along with the collapsed boiler and a cluster of the engine's boiler pipes.

Yet another fire loss is the 164foot steamer Monohansett which went down in 1907. This wooden ship was anchored near Thunder Bay Island when the fire broke out, and her cargo of 900 tons of coal didn't help matters any. Three large pieces of the shipthe boiler, propeller, propeller shaft, and various pieces of wreckageare scattered about at a depth of only 1520 feet. The water is usually very clear in this area, making it a favourite for photographers.

While running in heavy fog, the 296foot steamer Grecian ran aground near the entrance to the St. Mary's River in 1906, heavily damaging her hull. After pulling her off the rocks and performing temporary repairs, salvagers were towing her to Detroit for permanent repairs when she foundered and sank off Thunder Bay Island. Broken amidships, the Grecian now lies in 105 feet of water, her deck at 70 feet. Her engines, boilers, windlass, and capstan are still there, as is her broken prop.

LODGING: Holiday Inn, Alpena. Phone: (517) 3562151.