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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2015-11-25, Page 3Wednesday, November 25, 2015 • Huron Expositor 3 1913 shipwreck with no survivors finally found in lake Huron Shaun Gregory Huron Expositor When Shipwreck hunter David Trotter saw the faded orange coloured side scan sonar of what appeared to be a large ship at the bottom of Lake Huron, blurting out obscenities, he knew right then this was "her", the Hydrus. It's been 30 years for Trotter surveying this body of water in Huron County's backyard, with complete hopes of finding the 436 foot steel freighter that sunk in the catastrophic storm known as the White Hurricane. According to the Weather Net- work, the disaster that origi- nated on November 7,1913was the "worst storm in the Great Lakes History'' During the four days of violent conditions, the hurricane produced approxi- mately 50 cm of snow with winds reaching more than 130 km/h across the open waters of Lake Huron. "Everyone of those ships that went down, half on the US and half on the Canada (side), out of those 12 that went down, there were no survivors, 270 people died in a matter of just a few hours," commented Trotter, 74, from Canton, Michigan. The 102 -year-old steel treasure is believed to be the last of the six ships lost and later discovered on US boundaries. For Trotter this is one more arti- fact to add to the pile of history he has stumbled across in the past three decades. At this time the senior has found roughly a hundred stray items on the bot- tom of the Great lakes, ranging from steamers to airplanes as well as numerous other differ- ent kinds of ships. One of his most glorifying moments was in 1993 when he deciphered the mystery of the largest schooner ever built in Canada. The Minnedosa was first con- structed in 1890, the 250 -foot wooden yacht would later be found by Trotter just east of Sag- inaw, Ont. This leisure pursuit is not an avenue for employment, for Trotter and the rest of his marine companions this job is all hobby. Every spring Trotter assembles a group of divers and shipwreck hunters 'literally' scavenging up and down most parts of Lake Huron putting hi 24-36 hours straight of gridding. They are equipped with the lat- est state of the art marine tech- nology including visual under- water time capsules that are capable of high-resolution bot- tom profiling with 1,000 -foot depths. Seeing as the Great Lakes compose the largest body of fresh water in the world, locating ruins can take years or longer. "Lake Huron on the US side has 9,000 square miles of sur- face, if you think of that con- text, so a ship is 400 -feet long and 50 -feet wide. Well let me tell you (in) 9,000 square miles of the (lake's) surface, that's a pretty small dot," Trotter stated regarding the complex- ity of the side scan sonar and how difficult it can be to pin point these objects. "If a ship was lost, unless somebody saw it go down, which in a heavy storm you're fighting for your own survival. (Back then) nobody knew except the debris that came a shore during the next couple of days on the Cana- dian side as the winds pushed it across the lake'' It was on Friday July 3 when Trotter, the founder of Under- sea Research Associates, accompanied by his crew of about six to eight shipwreck enthusiasts were halted only to finally catch a glimpse of the Hydrus. From what Trotter could see on the side scan sonar, it looked as if the ship was still intact. Once the diving crew suited up in their high- tech scuba gear filled with tanks An anticipated wind turbine meeting in Seaforth Residence say some children are allegedly receiving nosebleeds from wind turbines Shaun Gregory Huron Expositor During a community liai- son meeting in Seaforth at Huron East's town hall, an engineer who works on sev- eral turbines in St. Columban admitted to the public that most statements made by consultants that residence will "never hear" the large fans are dishonesties. It was a full community con- ference with almost every chair filled in the council chambers joined bythe HEAT group, Ver- esen Inc., Huron East council members and a few locals. For all those who came, coffee, donuts and a fruit tray were available free of charge. The voice of the HEAT, Jeanne Mel- ady and Gerry Ryan were front- rowreadywith pens and paper. The two have been present at three out of the last four Huron East council meeting. They expressed their needs to the political gang numerous times, a primary concern was that HEAT did notknowwho to call. Todaywas the day to move for- ward and be heard by the wind turbine company. At a previous council meeting, Huron East was optimistic and sure several questions would be answered at this function. Dennis Mueller, a represent- ative for the community liaison committee started the two- hour session by directing ques- tions and complaints from members of 14 households that live near these wind tur- bines. These inquiries were aimed at Veresen Inc. and the senior engineer. Mueller put all these objections on a screen so the public could view these alleged accusations. "Personally I was appalled when these reports began to come in as I knew there were health problems but had no idea to this severity," said Mueller. "The fact that there are also children being affected by this project, I have a huge problem with that as a parent'' In the prepared document by Mueller, he pointed at all the specific complaints by the resi- dents. They were presented at the meeting as property num- bers from 1-14 with no specific names attached to them. Their main concerns and questions were as followed: Property #1 "I would like to know why my bed trembles or lightly vibrates. The nights of the storm were particularly noticeable. I always sleep with my bedroom window open but can't anymore." Property #2 "Noise from turbines were veryloud last night (Oct.31) but have got to the point that no one will follow up. We run a fan all night to drown out the noise. As soon as my head touches the pillow I can hear the noise and feel the vibration'' Property #3 "Our concerns are noise - night time mainly. Going to sleep we hear a constant swoosh. The instances where the weather, temperature, & wind are in a perfect combo causes them to be very loud - enough to wake you from a sleep." CONTINUED > PAGE 5 of mixed gases that enabled them to swim for long lengths, it was now time to get a visual of this century old wreckage. Marty Lutz long-time friend of Trotter's swam 150 -feet deep equipped with a waterproof wide camera. Once reaching the lake's floor, the image came in on a screen on the boat at sea level, this was 'she' and to add to the mystery, Trotter called the Hydrus "unusual," not like the others found. This specific vessel sat up right while the other five were upside down or what's also known as being `tur- tled' Because the ship was posi- tioned up right Trotter said it opened up a lot of opportunity for better information and eas- ier access to exploration to comprehend exactly what hap- pened to this well-known ship. "You look for something long enough and you find it, you realize hey, we've added a lot to history and the under- standing in knowledge what that horrific storm in 1913 meant to people and the trag- edies lost," Trotter said. In a recent interview Trotter confirmed that these water transports were designed to haul goods, produce and immi- grants and as a result of this there is no economic value con- nected to the vessels. He said the general assumption is that there is treasure, Trotter cackled during a phone conversation 6. ea orthhuronex 1 ositor.co Contributed by David Trotter This is the side scan image of the shipwreck known as Hydrus. and added, "that's all a figment of people's imagination" "That happened with the Spanish and the French, where they were looking for gold from the South American countries" he said. "There is no gold or sil- ver, the Great Lakes have been tremendous arteries to naviga- tion. In fact, most the provinces in Canada have been built because the Great lakes moving a large commodity of goods'' Jim Schaefer, a reporter for the Detroit Free Press, wrote a column about Trotter a few years back and became familiar with the shipwreck expert. Schaefer learned of the break- through reakthrough from acquaintances that he and Trotter shared. A week later the 23 -year DFP journalist landed himself an opportunity to cover the exclu- sive story. He and a fellow pho- tographer traveled about 32 miles from US land with Trotter and his marine squad to docu- ment the information. "We're sitting there waiting and waiting. They finally Diver approaching the pilot house. come backup and David's like is there a shipwreck down there? Which he already knew the answer to, just hearing him say, yes sir, was pretty cool," commented Schaefer after hearing Trotter's voice. "He's the guy that keeps eve- rything together, it's his ridicu- lous commitment because it takes an unbelievable amount of time. He's so into it, it's hard to explain, even he's not ade- quate when it comes to explain- ingwhyhe is." For security reasons Trotter mentioned to the Postmedia Network that he is not prepared to give the exact coordinates of where the Hydrus is stationed. He added that there is much left to examine, this will continue with the assistance of Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles to access what divers currently are unable to reach. If any per- sons are interested in reviewing the past documentaries from previous shipwrecks like the Hydrus email Trotter at dltro tter@msn.com Santa Says: "Give Seaforth Huron Expositor as a gift this year": Drop in CaII Or Mail in Your Seaforth Huron Expositor 8 Main Street, P.O. Box 69 Seaforth, ON NOK 1 WO 519-527-0240 www.seaforthhuronexpositor.com Y F_