Underwater Archaeological Society of Chicago
November 21, 2018
Meeting Minutes
The meeting was called to order by the new president, Colin Bertling since Dean Nolan, the out-going president, was unable to attend due to work commitments. There were about 20 members present.
The minutes by Carol Sommers were approved.
The treasurer, John Bell, announced that membership renewals had been sent out and the income from them will be deposited after January first. Otherwise, there is no change in the balance in the treasury.
Illinois Council of Skin and Scuba Divers -The Underwater Competition will be held in the Elk Grove Pavilion. The Chicago Suba Meet-UP is the one to beat. The Date is TBD.
Website – a listing of the books that belong to UASC and our book recommendations will be put on the site.
Newsletter- Articles are needed and Michele will do one on Thunder Bay. Articles are needed ASAP, preferably with photos.
Other topics - The Christmas Tree Ship will arrive on Saturday, December 1 and the Coast Guard will distribute 1,200 trees to the needy over the weekend. There are tours from 1 to 5. Chet Childs wrote the Christmas Tree Play and Ruth Flesvig, age 88, and was in the audience at one of the first performances. She had been one of the Chicago citizens waiting for the original Christmas Tree ship.
The Wisconsin Marine Historical Society will have a meeting on January 26 in the South Shore Yacht Club in Milwaukee. Jim Jarecki will be going.
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival will be held in Ann Arbor on March 2.
The plaque honoring Chet Childs and Bob Gadbois will be put on the Straits of Mackinac. The UASC will donate $2,000 to the Chicago Maritime Museum and have Chet and Bob’s name put on the donor board. Capt. Dave Truitt donated the money and has also said that he approves UASC having 501c3 status.
Plans should be made for outings for next year, for example, Ice diving and a field trip to the National Archives.
Elections were held and the new officers are Colin Bertling, president, Scott Reimer, vice-president, John Bell, treasurer and Claire Gadbois, secretary.
Our World Underwater – It takes place at the O’Hare Marriott on February 16-17. Booth volunteers are needed. John recommended having printed booth guidelines reminding us that we must be salesmen for the group and recruit new members.
Chicago Maritime Museum – The holiday party will be on December 8 and feature a concert by Lee Murdock. UASC members are encouraged to attend because we will be presenting the Charlotte Anne’s ship’s wheel to Capt. Dave Truitt. The cost is $20 for non-members and $15 for members.
Historic events in the month of November were: 1818, the second Chicago area shipwreck which was the Hercules, the 10th, 1975, sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the Armistice Day storm of 1940 with the sinking of 5 vessels near South Haven, the 18th, 1958, the sinking of the Carl D. Bradley where 35 died (one of the survivors will be doing a presentation at CMM), the 21st, 1847 the burning of the Phoenix with 147 fatalities, the 29th,1889 the sinking’s of the David Dows and the Calumet.
There will be no meeting in December and the UASC pot-luck holiday party will be at the home of Carol Sommers at 2pm on Sunday, January 13th. Please RSVP with information as to what you are bringing.
Colin Bertling gave the member presentation on the White Hurricane, the storm of 1913. Two storm fronts combined on November 6-11 which resulted in 12 ships being wrecked and 30 being stranded. 235 people died. There were 80 mph winds and 40-foot waves. Most ships had long and shallow holds which means that they were hard to turn around and became swamped in the waves. In addition, water from waves splashing on the deck turned into ice which added weight to the ships. Normally, the rule of thumb that captains followed was that storms lasted three days, so some went out after that time without realizing that the storm was not yet over. Storm warnings were vague. The blizzard that struck Cleveland at the same time had hurricane force winds and communication was impossible because of downed power lines. The ship, the Charles S. Price turned turtle. Other wrecks from the storm include the Henry B. Smith found in 2013, the Regina and the Argus which was found by David Trotter. The “Last Laker”, a Stonehouse book, was recommended reading by member, Michelle Hagerman.
John Bell would like UASC to establish a library of resources and materials. Until a permanent location is found, hopefully in the same building as CMM, the library‘s contents would be located in different locations i.e. members’ homes and there would be an inventory with this information. Members can donate books to the library and still keep them in their home. If UASC becomes a 501c3, someone may donate a storage locker at the Bridgeport Arts Center. John recommends that a list should be made of the personal resources in the group. This list would not be publicly known but could be put in the members-only area on our website. To help catalog our resources, Colin said he has a VHS-DVD converter and can transfer H18. This can also be done at Central Camera. Claire Gadbois and Keith Pearson have H18 camcorders. Several items which can be put in the library are: (1) The 1989 report of the start of UASC which needs to be put into PDF file by a member, (2) the Wells Burt, (3) the Goshawk—Tom was the first diver on it. It is located 80 miles south of Alpena near Talus, Michigan, (4) the Seabird, (5) the Lady Elgin, (6) the Underwater Forest and (7) the Car Ferry #2 report which may need to be reprinted. Claire asked of old copies of the Wreck checker could be donated and it is encouraged.
The next regular meeting will be on January 30th and the featured speaker will be Ben Sells.
The meeting adjourned at 9 pm.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Carol Sommers, Secretary.