Underwater Archaeological Society of Chicago
September 26, 2018
Meeting Minutes
President Dean Nolan welcomed 20 members and guests.
The minutes written by Secretary Carol Sommers were approved.
Treasurer John Bell gave the report of funds and said there were two new memberships added.
Maritime events and places to visit – Scott Reimer and Jim Jarecki attended the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History meeting. There were good contacts since museums and academics were present. Jim obtained a new photo of the David Dows but the 20-foot figurehead was not on it. The National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo, Ohio was recommended for a visit as was the North Carolina Marine Museum in Beaufort. Carol Sommers visited the Maritime Museum in Erie, Pennsylvania which has a replica of the Niagara which was used by Perry to win a battle in the war of 1812. New member Michele recommended the canal schooner replica in Alpena, Michigan. The Old Lighthouse Museum in Michigan City, Indiana is open from 1-4 pm April to October and is totally manned by 60 volunteers. Dean mentioned a possible UASC field trip to visit the National Archives to see the maritime records, but it needs to be during the week because it is now closed on weekends.
Illinois Council of Skin and Scuba Divers – September 15 was the coastal land clean-up on Greenwood Beach in Evanston. Among other items, lots of golf balls were found by UASC members who then dived the George Morley. October 20 will be the President’s Day Dinner at Mack’s Golden Pheasant, 608 W. North Avenue in Elmhurst. Cocktails start at 6 with dinner at 7. Claire has tickets for sale at $35 each, but they also can be bought at the door. It’s an opportunity to meet members of other dive clubs. There will be a raffle and be sure to bring an unwrapped toy (no stuffed animals) for Toys for Tots. UASC is in the running for Dive Club of the Year and several members are nominated for Diver of the Year.
Chicago Maritime Museum – Plans for the new exhibit are progressing and construction will start after the Open House Chicago. Last year there were almost 1,000 visitors during Open House Chicago and Jim Jarecki asked UASC members to help by volunteering. On this day 100 years ago in 1930, the last commercially operating schooner Our Son sank off the coast of Wisconsin between Manitowoc and Two Rivers. There were no fatalities. It was built in 1875 as was the schooner Lucia Simpson which sank in 1929. The holiday party will be held on December 1 and will feature Lee Murdock performing his Christmas Ship Concert.
Website - Colin Bertling said there were no new wrecks on it since the David Dows. More will be added soon. If anyone has information or a write-up on a wreck which they would like added, contact Colin.
Newsletter - Articles are needed and Dean said he hoped it would be out by the end of the year.
Our World Underwater, February 16-17, 2019. If we follow through with the 501C3, we would be charged a discounted rate and we could apply for grants to cover all the expenses of exhibiting at shows. It is the best opportunity of the year for getting new members and fulfills our mission statement which is to educate the public about shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. The venue will be either the Marriott or Hilton O’Hare. New member Michele mentioned the Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The UASC used to regularly exhibit at this show, but this practice was discontinued because of the expense and lack of members attending to run the booth.
Holiday Party – It will take place at Carol Sommer’s home, either January 12 or 13. Everyone should bring a dish for the potluck. More details will follow.
Plaque for Bob Gadbois – A draft of the tribute for the copy was read and comments were requested. Claire decided it should be placed on the Straits of Mackinac car ferry wreck because he had worked a lot on it and it would be seen by many divers. It was decided to mount it attached to one of the railings on the top deck. It would be about 11 X 14, or large enough that the tribute could be easily read. The composition is still to be decided. Keith Pearson had offered to fund a bronze plaque but plastic plaques on the Willy have held up well. There still is a bottle of wine to be found sunk with the wreck in 2003.
Survey dives – None were done this year.
Upcoming event – The Midwest Historical Archaeological Conference at DePaul University is October 19-20. This is a free conference and great opportunity for our members to learn more about local archaeology. Contact Jim Jarecki for more information.
Member presentations are needed. Steve Arnam volunteered for October—topic to be determined.
The next UASC meeting will be October 24. The author Dick Lanyon will be the speaker and certificates for Continuing Education Professional Development will be available.
Featured speaker – Colin Bertling gave a talk about the schooner, the David Dows.
The David Dows was built at the Bailey Brothers shipyard in Toledo, Ohio for M.D Carrington of the Carrington & Casey shipping firm in 1881.
The 19th annual list of merchant sailing vessels of the United States lists the schooner David Dows as having the following dimensions, a length of 265.4 feet, a breadth of 37.6 feet, and a depth of 18.1 feet. She had a gross tonnage of 1,418.63 with a net tonnage of 1,347.70; these numbers indicate the internal volume capacities of her hold. Her true hauling potential was never fully tested, as sailing at full capacity of cargo would cause her to sit too deep into the water to dock and unload.
On the day of her launching, April 21, 1881 a Toledo newspaper called ‘The Blade’ wrote that the David Dows was “a veritable queen of ships. Forests have been leveled for her timbers, hundreds of kingly oaks have been felled for her symmetrical frame, and cunning shipwrights have exhausted their art in devising for her lines of grace and beauty.”
The David Dows was the only 5 masted schooner built on the great lakes and she was surely a behemoth to behold. Her immense size and fifth mast made her legendary around the great lakes, but there were larger ships around that time.
The Western Metropolis was bigger than the Dows and nearly 80 feet longer as well. She was 340 feet long, had a 40 ft. beam, and 14 ft. hold. She was launched April 23, 1856. The Western Metropolis sailed for almost 30 years before a storm drove her ashore near grand traverse bay, Michigan where she was later broken apart from the wave action.
The Golden Age was also a bit larger than the Dows at 295 feet long, 39’6 beam, 12’6 hold. She launched in 1883 and sailed until her abandonment near Put-In-Bay Ohio in 1924.
The Tug Aurora that would come to tow the David Dows on her final voyage was one of the largest wooden vessels on the great lakes as well, having been 290 feet long, 41 feet wide, and 22 feet in her hold. As big of a vessel as the Dows was, she only needed a crew of 8 to sail her. Shallow harbors made it impossible to sail fully loaded and on some trips she grounded out on her way into harbors to unload.
Her large features made maneuvering difficult and awkward and she had collisions with docks and other vessels. Although she could travel faster under power of sail, her collisions and troubles when docking caused her owners to have her towed as a barge from port to port to ensure safer passage.
From the article in the Chicago Daily Tribune dated, November 30th, 1889; titled “swept by icy gales” we get a journalist’s account of the final voyage;
On November 16, 1889 she sailed under her own power loaded with 2,000 tons of coal from Erie, Pennsylvania hoping to reach and unload in Chicago. The trip was slowed by strong winds and the Dows made slow progress thru Lake Huron, finally arriving near the Manitou islands on Wednesday, Nov. 27. She was here taken under tow by the tug Aurora along with the schooner, George W. Adams. The weather remained harsh as North winds and below freezing temperatures whipt up the lake and sheathed the vessel and her crew in icy water. By Wednesday evening the Dows was taking on water and her Donkey engine and crew worked to pump out the flooding hull.
The crew worked tirelessly throughout the night against the water coming in and still the water rose in the hull at a rate of 3 inches an hour. The crew were also worried about ice getting in and jamming up the pumps. Stopping periodically to clear this debris, caused the flow of water to increase rapidly. Around 3am on Thursday morning, the growing flow of water convinced the crew that their efforts may be overtaken and the Dows would become fully swamped. This resulted in the lighting of torches as a signal to the other vessels that they were in peril. The heavy winds and thick snow, however, kept the three boats hidden so their call for help was not easily seen or heard.
The heavy storm also pushed the vessels off course when the winds shifted from northerly to north westerly. The tug aurora had been on course as her compass had showed, but when the weather cleared somewhat on Thursday afternoon, they realized they were blown straight East of Chicago with the shifting winds. The powerful steamer tried to adjust, but the Dows was dragging and the waves were lifting her screw out of the water more and more. Around 3pm, the steam donkey engine on the Dows had failed and heavy waves had washed anything loose off of the deck, including the large lifeboat. The one lifeboat that remained was only large enough for half the crew.
They were losing hope that they would make it to port. It was then that Captain Ed Kelly of the aurora cast off his tow line and headed in to Chicago for help. The Dows and the Adams dropped their anchors but had drifted apart almost 2 miles and the Adams crew could not give aid or work to save those on the Dows. Captain Thomas Roche of the David Dows tried to reassure his crew that they were far from sunk but hope was being lost. The Dows was sinking slowly, but being such a large vessel, the crew felt that safety could be had atop the masts and many had climbed high to reach it. The water they were anchored in was seven fathoms (or forty two feet) deep. The masts would stay high above the water if she sunk here. Having not eaten for almost 30 hours and suffering exhaustion and frostbite, the crew came down for coffee and to salvage blankets and dry clothes from the cabin. Soon, the crashing waves came back and the crew climbed up the rigging again to await the inevitable sinking. Four of the crew decided to make for the lifeboat and were able to row safely to the deck of the Adams.
Finally, near daylight on Friday morning, rescue arrived on the tug T.T Morford and the tug Chicago. The Dows was unable to be saved though, as her crew could not lift her anchors and she was so swamped already with water and ice. The crew were rescued and given their first bit of food and warmth in 2 days. They made their way to safety in Chicago and eventually the marine hospital. All 9 of the crew survived, though most suffered severe frostbite. Around 2:45 Friday afternoon, Captain Roche returned on the tug Chicago and watched as the Dows rolled to her side and sank head first to the 40 foot lake bottom. The Adams however, faired far better and was found two miles east of the Dows and brought in safely, having only suffered a broken rudder.
The steamer calumet sank in the same weekend storm up near fort Sheridan!
Her crew of 18 were saved by a group of northwestern university students that were the areas lifesaving service. The Northwestern rescuers towed a lifeboat, by train and through the snow over land, then from the beach, rowing 600 yards offshore three times to save the entire crew.
In the years after the Dows had wrecked, some of her cargo of coal was salvaged and it was found that the wave action and ice flow had buried and broken a lot of the ship. Being near a direct line of shipping traffic, it was decided that the shallow wreck was hazardous to navigation and was dynamited to further flatten the broken wreck.
The wreck site was found again sometime in the 1960’s and soon became a favorite site for area divers. These same divers who enjoyed diving on her, stripped many of the Dows artifacts. A Skin Diver article from March of 1966, titled “Wreck of the David Dows”, encouraged a common attitude of that time, which was to strip the wreck of artifacts and relics and even asked that someone send some to the author for giving out the coordinates of the wreck. As Bob Gadbois would say, A Found wreck is a lost wreck! Thankfully, this mindset of ‘wrecking’ a wreck has changed to the mantra of take only photos and leave only bubbles.
The Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987 helped change the ‘finders keepers’ credence to ‘leave it better than you found it’. The Chicago Maritime Society’s underwater archeology committee saw the importance of this act and set forth to educate the public of its meaning.
One of the first projects of this committee was to write a historical profile on the Dows and submit her to the National Register of Historic Places. 100 years after she sank, In 1989, The lack of artifacts and damage of the wreck from divers and lake Michigan’s strong waters did not make her the best candidate for the register, but the techniques used to survey the wreck and the methods learned by the committee would be invaluable later that fall when the company, A&T recovery, gave them the location of the Wells Burt and asked them to develop a sight plan and survey the virgin wreck. That project would become the inception of our group, the UASC.
After just 8 years on the lakes, the David Dows came to an end that Thanksgiving weekend in 1889 and soon after the golden age of Sail was ushered out for the almighty engine. Today, almost 130 years later, we remember her for the clumsy, yet beautiful behemoth that she was. She will always stand as an important symbol for the beginnings of this group and our drive to learn & preserve our cultural heritage beneath Chicago’s waters.
The meeting was adjourned at 9 pm. Minutes respectfully submitted by Secretary Carol Sommers