Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates
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Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates, or MSRA[1], was formed in 2001 by the former directors of the committee which successfully established the Southwest Michigan Underwater Preserve. With the discovery of the steamer H. C. Akeley outside the boundaries of the preserve, the group broadened their area of focus with the formation of MSRA.
MSRA is a Michigan non-profit corporation based in Holland, Michigan, the focus of which is to “Preserve Michigan’s Submerged Maritime History for now and forever.”
To that end, the organization’s work includes DISCOVERY, EXPLORATION, DOCUMENTATION, and OUTREACH. The organization operates solely on a volunteer basis with financial support from its Board of Directors, grants and private funding.
Board members include (in alphabetical order): Jan Miller, Geoffrey Reynolds, Craig Rich, Ross Richardson, Jack Van Heest and Valerie Van Heest.
MSRA has relationships with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, the United States Coast Guard, the University of Michigan, and the Michigan State Police.
Other affiliates include renown authors, archeologists, oceanographers, marine engineers, historians and explorers. MSRA has conducted joint operations with David Trotter's Undersea Research Associates (URA) and Clive Cussler's National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA).
Until MSRA was formed, the waters off the coast of West Michigan were some of the least explored in Michigan. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say they may have been explored, but those conducting the exploration were unwilling to share their discoveries with the public. Rumors abound of shipwreck discoveries in the 1960s and 1970s.
There exist only a handful of discovered and documented shipwrecks. Many of these have provided a source of sport diving opportunities. However there is a rich wealth of historical information awaiting discovery. And that is where MSRA comes in.
The waters off West Michigan are not sheltered with harbors like so many other areas in Michigan. Prevailing west and northwest winds have scoured out the bottom, creating one of the deepest areas in the lake. While just across the lake off Chicago and Milwaukee, water is as shallow as 100 feet 10 miles offshore, the Michigan side drops off to that depth only 3 miles from shore. This condition may be the limiting factor in shipwreck discoveries. Discoveries are usually made by scuba divers interested in diving on virgin wrecks. Until recent advances in technical diving, which allows divers to go deeper for longer, shipwreck hunters paid very little attention to the region off west Michigan due to excessive depth.
Shipwreck discovery offers the opportunity to revisit the circumstances of the wreck and delve deeper into the history surrounding these tragedies. Careful study of the sunken remains can offer insights into the cause of the sinking and can help write the final chapter of stories in which there were no survivors. The excitement of a discovery instills new interest into the history of the ship, the people associated with it and the times in which it sailed.
MSRA directors have researched, planned, organized and conducted an annual spring search since 1998, (then, while affiliated with the SWMUP). Utilizing the services of renowned shipwreck hunter and side scan sonar expert David Trotter, the team has covered over 120 miles of bottomland off West Michigan. Each search season has involved 10 days of search efforts, weather permitting. Since 1998 MSRA has discovered several new shipwrecks: the H. C. Akeley lost in 1883 and discovered on May 25, 2001 off Saugatuck, Michigan; a steel barge located off Holland in 2004; the remains of the Great Lakes car ferry Ann Arbor no. 5 located in May 2005; the S. S. Michigan lost off Holland in 1885 and found in June 2005; the Hennepin, known as the first self-unloader on the Great lakes in 2006; another modern barge in 2006; and an as yet unidentified schooner in 2006. The schooner may be the same one which had been located a few years before and dived by a few local divers.
Shipwreck discovery is a significant responsibility. All shipwrecks in the Great Lakes belong to the individual states in which they have come to rest. While laws are in place that make it illegal to remove anything from a shipwreck site, the discovery of a new site opens it up to the potential of pillaging and disturbance.
