Diving unknown wrecks (to us) in Lake WA

[kdupreez]

This past weekend 4 of GUE Seattle members did an exploration dive on an unknown (to us) target in Lake Washington. At least now this wreck will be marked and known to us and everyone else.

I'm sure there have been other divers on this wreck before since its a very prominent sore thumb in the NOAA data, but historically people have not been good with sharing information about wrecks in the lake. (Which we aim to change)

The coordinates for this wreck was obtained from NOAA multi beam bathymetry data that was converted to a Geo TIFF image with Fledermaus Geo Spatial Software and overlaid in Google Earth.

By just quickly doing a visual scan through the sonar image of Lake Washington in Google Earth, we were able to locate at least a 100 or more "targets".. Here is a screenshot of all the currently unkown targets we have identified in Google Earth.



For this dive we picked a target based on which of the bigger targets are still "unknown" to us and that looked interesting.


Zooming into the general area for that target, you can see its among many other known and unknown wrecks.

Coordinates for this Wreck:
47°39'42.22"N
122°13'36.03"W



Then we double checked the 3D sonar data in Fledermaus to make sure it doesnt look like a bunch of rocks..



From the above 3D data it for sure looked like there is at least some super structure intact and the hull appears to be almost about 100 feet long and its resting at the bottom of the lake in 150 feet of fresh water in that particular area.. (BTW, Google Earth depth's are about 20ft deeper than actual.. it showed 170, but the wreck was only 150)

We decided to go out and dive this target! Mike was gracious enough to make his boat available for this adventure!

Mike Racine, Joe Radesoevic, Koos du Preez and Kees Beemster set out on Saturday morning November 24th to go check out this target.

We dropped down to 150 feet where we found the shot line RIGHT next to the wreck! Well done Pete and Mike for an amazing drop!

We quickly realized that the sonar data was lying and there was zero super structure left.. This was a burnt out old wooden hull..

We did find a number of bricks on the aft deck that kinda makes it look like this was purposely burnt and scuttled.. And from looking at the stern and stem, it sure looked like an old 1890's or early 1900's steamer boat.

There was not any identifying marks at all on the hull that we could find and all the everything of value was pulled out prior to it going down. (Engines, prop, etc.)

This is probably an old steamer tug or small passenger ferry in the Mosquito fleet.

After about 20 minutes on the wreck, we've seen everything we possibly could on this wreck and called the dive. Not a very interesting dive, but still very very cool to locate a wreck on NOAA Sonar imagery, go explore it and dive on circa 1890 steam boat wreck!

Here is a quick video recap of our dive. LOTS of assumptions made here based on what I saw.. Any feedback and input would be highly appreciated from those with lots of historical maritime knowledge



http://vimeo.com/54272707

[Norris]

Very cool, thanks for sharing!

[CaptnJack]

That's what I've known as the Triton/Aquila.

[kdupreez]

That's what I've known as the Triton/Aquila.

The "Triton" is the target North East of this one.. Triton/Aquila has since been identified by MDS and Ben Griner as the Cyrene.

So far the one we dove is not in the list of numbers I have.

[CaptnJack]

That's what I've known as the Triton/Aquila.

The "Triton" is the target North East of this one.. Triton/Aquila has since been identified by MDS and Ben Griner as the Cyrene.

So far the one we dove is not in the list of numbers I have.

All 3 of those burnt ones like pretty similar so I forget which is which. Did it have a funny water fill pipe sticking up about 8ft above the deckline? Like something out of Who-ville? That's the Urania.

[spatman]

Very cool, thanks for sharing!

+1. Keep us updated on your explorations.

[thefeve]

awesome!

[kdupreez]

That's what I've known as the Triton/Aquila.

The "Triton" is the target North East of this one.. Triton/Aquila has since been identified by MDS and Ben Griner as the Cyrene.

So far the one we dove is not in the list of numbers I have.

All 3 of those burnt ones like pretty similar so I forget which is which. Did it have a funny water fill pipe sticking up about 8ft above the deckline? Like something out of Who-ville? That's the Urania.

yup, check the video, I thought it was some intake or vent of some sorts.

I thought the Urania was slightly NE, but more data coming back sounds like its Urania.

the smaller NE target I have as Urania is then unknown

[CaptnJack]

I can't view the video at work, but the Urania has a funny water filler for the boilers sticking up quite a ways. John Sharps isn't here much, but undoubtably has the pic of her still floating with this funny trumpet as one of the lone pieces of superstructure sticking up. Scott Boyd also has a copy of this archival pic somewhere too.

The one to the SE is the Elfin. To the NE is the Triton/Aquila or whatever she's been redescribed as now. They all look pretty similar, its a shame they were burnt.

[oldsalt]

Koos: Thanks for posting. Could the bricks be fire brick? I sailed on several steam powered vessels with fire brick lining the boilers.

I love your video.
-Curt

[kdupreez]

Koos: Thanks for posting. Could the bricks be fire brick? I sailed on several steam powered vessels with fire brick lining the boilers.

I love your video.
-Curt

Thanks Curt!

I have no clue, there were a number of those bricks in the aft area, they were tied with wire, so could very well be fire brick.. Thats great to know!


Richard - If the image we have in the video is correct on the pipe sticking out, then its a water filler?

And was the Urania a double decked passenger ferry? Its kinda cool how you can piece together the origins of an old burnt up piece of crap at the bottom of a lake and get some idea of what it looked like in its prior life.

Yes, very sad they burnt them.. I would have loved it if they scuttled them in-tact..

[Chris Borgen]

Hey Koos,

Im sure if you contact Dan Warter or Ben Griner (who you may already be in contact with) they would be willing to share anything we have dove, they keep track of pretty much everything we have. (Although there are a few we have dove without them they might not have documented like one down by the seahawks training facility, just to name one off the top of my head). I know just from looking at your map that there are a bunch of targets we have dove (not necessarily identified) but at least now what type of vessel they are. I dont think any of the guys I dive with would care about sharing coords especially if we could all share what coords we have.

-Chris

[CaptnJack]

Both Boyd and (most likely) Sharps have pics of the Urania burnt but floating with the 'water fill' clearly visible. Since the boilers are no longer intact, its hard to know precisely what it was but the most likely explanation is it was used to refill the boilers with fresh water since you wouldn't want to use salt water in a boiler. SCRET and/or UAS was able to track down the provenance of this one maybe 10 yrs ago.

[Tom Nic]

Very cool, thanks for sharing!

+1. Keep us updated on your explorations.

Adding my appreciation for telling the story and sharing your explorations. The dive community is enriched by this - thanks.

[kdupreez]

Thank you Chris! That would prove to be very very helful to have a broader cooperatoin between teams.

There are multiple hundreds of targets in the lake and if we have many teams and divers to load share the work, we could cover an immense amount of ground!

And yes, I'm in contact with Ben and it would be great to merge and share information! I envision an online database with truck loads of data / media that gets updated from the greater community around these targets as we dive 'em.

[kdupreez]

Looking at the pictures of the Urania and video and what I remember of the wreck, the more I think this wreck is NOT the Urania..

Look at the bow of the urania, way up on the bow, the beam that re-inforces the passenger deck is offset from the stem.



But yet, our video shows this support beam to be ONE with the stem and completely flush.



Kinda like this..



So, Im not sure, but I really dont think its the Urania?

Any thoughts?

[fnerg]

Wow, fascinating! It really makes me want to finish up my current classes and start getting into trimix.

[Tom Nic]

Enjoyed the vid, BTW. Couldn't initially watch it on my phone.

[CaptnJack]

Your arrows on the still of the wreck and the ship are not pointing at the same parts of the bow. The "not flush" arrow is completely gone on the actual wreck. The "flush part" which your wreck still arrow is pointing at is lower, just above the rub rail.

[Chris Borgen]

Looking at the pictures of the Urania and video and what I remember of the wreck, the more I think this wreck is NOT the Urania..

So, Im not sure, but I really dont think its the Urania?

Any thoughts?

We often laugh about these types of things because we see people posting that the wreck is "something" that it is more obvious that it is not, than it is. For example a wreck we dove that is supposedly a wreck that sank in the early 1900's, yet has spray paint all over it.(spray paint was invented in by Edward Seymour in 1949) Although the wreck looks similar to the supposed wreck, I think the bright orange spray paint crumbles that theory. Oh well, that is what makes diving these wrecks even more fun, the hunt for the identity.

[CaptnJack]

We often laugh about these types of things because we see people posting that the wreck is "something" that it is more obvious that it is not, than it is. For example a wreck we dove that is supposedly a wreck that sank in the early 1900's, yet has spray paint all over it.(spray paint was invented in by Edward Seymour in 1949) Although the wreck looks similar to the supposed wreck, I think the bright orange spray paint crumbles that theory. Oh well, that is what makes diving these wrecks even more fun, the hunt for the identity.

Agree, so often the last thing I want to be told is what something is beforehand. We've had plenty of fun diving BFRs (big friggin rocks) and boat lifts even.

[kdupreez]

Richard, not sure if you looked at the video yet, but the still i grabbed from the video doesn't do the length of that beam justice, it goes at least 6ft past the rub rail. That and it has white paint on it up higher.

here is a crappy screen grab to give a little better view..

[CaptnJack]

Let us know if you figure out what it is. There's a bunch of "maybes" out there. I've called the one with the who-ville waterfill pipe the Urania after a pic Boyd shared with me showing a very similar filler. Its also been called the Dart IIRC.