Bottle Digging Full Speed Ahead!
Soft Ground!
With all the rain we have been getting this spring, the ground should be easy to probe and dig. I spoke with one friend who has been metal detecting and the ground moisture has been helping him recover some nice mid-1800's coins! But, he tells me that in the area he is hunting, he is hitting the water table at 8 inches!
I saw another fellow, who sold me some dairy bottles last year, at the auto repair shop next door to mine. I asked him if he had been digging any bottles lately. He told me that he didn't have time! He had just returned from Gaylord, MI, with 30 pounds of black Morel mushrooms and he was on his way back! If I did my math correctly, that is over $800.00 worth of fungus!
I haven't done a whole lot of antique bottle collecting since the last meeting. I did snipe in on some closing e-Bay auctions and managed to scoop up a couple of nice U.S. Large Cents! There is a connection with me. When you hold a nice 1818 Large Cent in your hand, how can you not wonder about the lives of the people who touched it?
Here is some better food-for-thought. At our metal detector club meeting we had a fascinating guest speaker named Ross Richardson. Ross is a realtor from Lake Ann, Michigan. Like me, he has long been fascinated by Great Lakes shipping and shipwreck history. The big difference between us is that I explore the bottom of the Great Lakes by reading and dreaming. Ross, on the other hand, is a professional wreck diver and he really goes searching for lost ships!
What a hobby! One of the ships that went missing in our Lake Michigan waters is the Ghost Ship "Chicora," which sank in the very early 1900's. Some of the wreckage washed up onto the Allegan County shoreline but, even after years of searching, the large old steamship has never been found. Another Great Lakes shipwreck that has been searched for many, many times is also considered a treasure ship, the Westmoreland. She went down in a winter storm back in December of 1854. The Westmoreland was a large, wooden, propeller-driven steamship 200 feet long and 28 feet wide; a big vessel in her day. The Westmoreland was a new ship, only one year old when she sank! She was designed for hauling passengers and freight and on her last voyage she was loaded with winter provisions and store goods for Mackinac Island. It is known that 17 lives were lost when the ship went down.
With many lost shipwrecks on the great Lakes, the rumors always seem to place a shipment of gold somewhere onboard. When the wreck did go down, there were records kept, and they show there were many things on board, but no mention of gold or the rumored cargo of high quality whiskey. Most of those rumors were actually spread by a salvage team who thought they had found the wreck.
First Mate Paul Pelkey
of the Westmoreland survived
the wreck and returned as a
Captain himself in 1872, and
then again in 1874 to salvage
the wreck. And indeed he did
salvage goods from a
shipwreck. However, when
Ross discovered the actual
Westmoreland wreck, it became
clear Captain Pelkey was
salvaging the wrong wreck!
Another team claimed they had
located the Westmoreland in
the mid 1950's and, according
to their reports, the ship was
little more that a huge pile of
lumber!
This ship is almost a twin to the
Westmoreland. Notice the supporting arches used in that day to
strengthen the 200 foot hull.
This is
the first sonar image of the Westmoreland!
That is often the case with shipwrecks exposed to Lake Michigan currents and ice flow. Hey, after all, there are thousands of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes and many of them are in Lake Michigan!
This is something from the newspaper, The Democracy dated December 22nd, 1854 about the sinking of the Westmoreland:
" Mr. Clinton Wright, Chief Engineer of the Propeller WESTMORELAND reached our city, yesterday morning, and from him we learn the following particulars concerning the loss of the propeller.
The WESTMORELAND, Capt. Thomas Clark, left Chicago on Saturday, Dec. 2d, for this port with 29,000 bushels of oats, 90 bales of wool, 1,400 bbls of flour, 50 kegs of butter, 200 dressed hogs, 160 quarters of beef and a quantity of barreled beef, pork, lard and other store goods. The Propeller made a great deal of foe on the 4th and 6th, and labored heavily. On the 6th it blew a gale, and snowed very hard. She began to leak a little, but was kept free by the steam pumps, which were immediately set going. The storm continued, however, and on the morning of the 7th, the engineer discovered that the water was coming in rapidly. The pumps were again set to work, but the water gained so that all hands were called to bail her out. At 10 o'clock A. M., the water began to damage the fires from underneath the grates, and continued to rise steadily until all the fires were put out.
The Propeller was then abreast of the point near the South Manitou, and about two miles and a half from shore, and within sight of the Light House. The wind blowing a gale from the North West, took her out to sea, where she drifted about 12 miles. The crew were unable to head her for the shore, on account of an undertow After every attempt to get her in had proved unavailing, and no hopes were left of saving her, the boats were got ready for launching. They had three on board. Into the first got Captain Clark, the two women, both engineers, two passengers, one wheelsman, one deck hand, and the cook. This boat, after a pull of nearly two hours, reached the beach in safety. In the second boat were the two mates, the second mate and watchman of the Saginaw, one wheelsman of the WESTMORELAND, and three Germans. This boat also reached the shore in safety. The third boat, with several in it, got foul of the cabin in launching, and upset. All in it perished!
The propeller continued to fill, and finally went down, between two and three o'clock in the afternoon.. When last seen, several of the men WHO were to have taken the third boat, were clinging to the arches.
The first and second boats landed at Platt River Bay, eighteen miles from Manitou Islands. The second boat was upset in the breakers and two of its crew were drowned. The boat was soon righted and then got safely ashore. The men from the boats then went back into the woods and built a cabin of branches, a fire, and remained there over night. The next morning the third boat was found bottom side up the beach, having drifted ashore. The beach was strewn for miles with barrels of flour pork, butter, &c., from the unfortunate propeller.
The shipwrecked party
stayed in their cabin from
Thursday night until Saturday
morning, when the storm
abated and they started in the
boats for Manitou Islands. After
being out two hours the wind
sprang up and both boats were
driven ashore. Here they built a
new cabin and remained four
days, until the storm subsided.
Prior to this, however, and on
the second day, the mate and
two others started for the
Island, going round by the
beach. On the fourth day the
first mate, not having returned,
the second mate and the first
and second engineers started on
foot on the beach for Manistee
ninety miles distant. In their
route they had to wade through
several streams, one in which
the water was three feet deep.
They reached Manistee on
Friday evening and on Saturday
evening got on board the
schooner Whirlwind bound for
Racine, which port they reached
on Wednesday."
This is from the underwater video that
Ross shot. If you are a shipwreck nut like me, this is as pretty as it
gets! This is the auxiliary wheel on the ships stern . . . the first
trophy of a salvage diver!
The reason I am covering this in the Bottle Club newsletter is that when the Westmoreland was found, it was sitting on the lake-bottom upright with everything intact! There are hand tools lying on the deck!
On July 10, 2010, Ross confirmed the identity of the Westmoreland. The Westmoreland is in an incredible state of preservation and has remained unseen by human eyes for over a century and a half. The shipwreck is sitting upright and nearly completely intact in deep water. The depth and the steep walls of the uncharted hole she sits in seems to have protected her from currents and ice that have reduced most wrecks on the west shore of Michigan to nothing more that interesting board piles. Her bow points south and east, pointing down the course she was blown by the December gale in 1854.
At the very stern, on the passenger deck, is the auxiliary helm; a perfectly intact ship's wheel. It's in pristine condition considering the Westmoreland sank 7 years before the Civil War started, and was on the bottom of Lake Michigan over a decade before president Lincoln was assassinated.
Ross and his team left
the ship just as they found it
and, when I saw the video
footage, I could see that leaving
it undisturbed took a great deal
of self discipline! You know,
the treasure value aboard this
ship in antique bottles alone
would be staggering! She was
no doubt carrying hundreds of
bottled products as her cargo,
but also goods for the captain
and crew and passengers. Beer,
Wine, Spirits, Food Products,
Medicines, Inks, and everything
is pontiled! This was a great
presentation that really captured
my imagination! It was just like
all the treasure stories I heard as
a kid!
