The question I’m exploring for this Bubbler Talk comes from listeners Amy Gajewski and her husband Victor Muñoz. I met with them at Bradford Beach. They are certified scuba divers with an interest in shipwrecks.
Muñoz, from Puerto Rico, has decades of diving experience. He became certified to scuba dive at age 15 while Gajewski just recently earned her certification. On their dives, she and Muñoz have seen shipwrecks like the Gillen Tugboat and the Prins Willem V, both about three miles offshore.
That’s why Gajewski wanted to know: "Why are there so many shipwrecks in Lake Michigan, especially off of the coast of the Milwaukee area?"
Tamara Thomsen is a maritime archaeologist at the Wisconsin Historical Society. She told us why.
"Milwaukee falls on a large water highway," Thomsen says. "So, before there were roads and rail into this part of the country, the easiest way to get here and to get product here out to the rest of the world was by water."
There are over 150 shipwrecks in lower Lake Michigan, according to wisconsinshipwrecks.org. Many of them date back to the mid-1800s. Thomsen says there are records of 780 shipwrecks in Wisconsin’s portion of the Great Lakes.
Gajewski and Muñoz wanted to know how the ships met their fate.
"Early steamers, they’re on a wooden ship burning wood and they tended to catch fire," Thomsen says. "Collisions and fog — before there were lighthouses and other aids to navigation that we have today. In fact, you may see a lighthouse somewhere because of the prevalence of collisions or groundings in a particular area."
Thomsen shares another reason for shipwrecks, especially the ones in the Rawley Point area of Lake Michigan by Two Rivers.
"A lot of ships clip the coast, come really close to the point. Unfortunately there, there are quicksands that are on the point. If your ship grounded it would look like it was very softly held in this quicksand. It was like jelly and it would hold your ship there," Thomsen says.
The eagerness to ship a product to market coupled with freezing temperatures often contributed to a ship’s demise.
"Starting your season too early or ending it too late and getting caught in ice fields," Thomsen says. "There was a mini ice age that happened on Lake Michigan and a number of ships were crushed in the ice."
Question-asker Gajewski was surprised about the reasons for these centuries-old shipwrecks.
"I had no clue about the quicksands that could just grab the ships," Gajewski says. "The ice makes a lot of sense. I recall seeing stories about ships that have gotten stuck in ice in the lake and it’s just very interesting to learn that is a main cause, or could’ve been a main cause, as to why ships were sinking in Lake Michigan."
Thomsen says shipwrecks can help us learn historical information related to imported goods and ship construction.
"There are very, very few blueprints that exist today," she says. "What we understand about ship construction is learned from the archaeological record or what we see on the bottom."
Question-asker and scuba enthusiast Muñoz describes what’s special about Wisconsin’s waters and what he sees at the bottom of a dive.
"They’re all preserved down there," Muñoz says. "It’s like they’re being preserved forever underneath the water. Obviously, you’ve got a lot of shells and marine life that’s attaching to them, but you also see how they are there and they’re not going anywhere."
Thomsen says the preserved wrecks are like time capsules.
"If you think of them in that manner, they represent a point in time where there were people living aboard and sometimes died," she says. "They tell us the stories of what shipward life was like at a particular period."
For Gajewski and Muñoz, exploring shipwrecks means bracing Lake Michigan’s chilly waters. They say the dives aren’t easy but they’re ready for the next one.
When: April 10, 2025
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Where: Gathering Place Brewing Company (Riverwest)
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