Island City Ship wreck North of Milwaukee,Wi

[moneysavr]

Wow!
What a great day to be on the lake,SwimJim- Jim and I hit the lake less one dive pal this A.M. waves were to be 1'-2' going 2'-3' by this afternoon,as we headed south out of Portwashington Marina we hit a slight chop as we headed south to Milwaukee the South winds kicked in and waves soon were up to 3' with a 5' rouge wave!
Flags with 7-14 Knot winds

On site we found the wreck with my GPS Good No#s and sonar we dropped a marker float and I soon found out as Jim said the weight was to light and it sailed off in the current and probably sank too!


5-7 trys we final hooked in once and unhooked then re hooked good with Jim's wreck hook,
Jim after a good hook!!! Man no more pulling up 200' of rope!

The dive was great as you will see the vis was 40' and was kicked up by us a bit and Jim was saving the local Bourbot-aka Lawyers from the fish net ( They were still alive)all over this not too often dived wreck, Some were dead too white jelly like blobs YUCK! with dead eyes on this wreck and she lays low on the lake floor so this not too often dived wreck was well all the work!
Hey Man
Enjoy the video link as I did not edit it too much and stay tuned as I will Post The S.S.Milwaukee video we dived today too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT73Xsmmf94
Dived to Deco Major Man!!!!!!!
Dive Safe,
Brad

 

[SwimJim]

Pretty decent video Brad. It captures the extreme amount of fish nets on the wreck. For anyone visiting the Island City, stay off the wreck and look at her. She is interesting to see. The nets are a real hazard though. Some are heavy, but some are close to invisable. Take a good emt shears along just in case!

Jim

 

[Dean810]

Where did the nets come from? Are they original to the wreck?

 

[SwimJim]

The net nets were snagged and lost on the wreck by commercial fisherman. It must have been one of thier hotspots. I haven't looked it up, but one can assume that the Island City was a lumber hauler as most of her sisters seemed to be.

Jim

 

[SwimJim]

I poked around on the web a bit and came up with this.

ISLAND CITY
Other names : none
Official no. : 12084
Type at loss : schooner, wood, 2-mast, lumber
Build info : 1859, Peter Perry, St Clair R.[Harson’s Island], MI
Specs : 81x17x6, 55g 52n
Date of loss : 1894, Apr 8
Place of loss : 14 mi off Milwaukee
Lake : Michigan
Type of loss : (storm)
Loss of life : 2
Carrying : hardwood lumber
Detail : Foundered, no other detail.
Rebuilt and enlarged in 1866, major repairs 1878, 79.
Sources: mv,h,wbm,hgl,wl


As I suspected she was carrying a load of hardwood. A pretty normal load for a schooner during the time of her loss.

Jim

 

[pcarlson1911]

Thanks for the video Brad. The fish nets are scary. We dove on a wreck in erie today, the Craftsman. The vis was so bad that it would have been easy to wander into a net without knowing it. Good thing there aren't any!

pc

 

[moneysavr]

Where did the nets come from? Are they original to the wreck?

Hey Deano,
You missed it Portwashington had Tall ships festival this past weekend, the ships were not too tall, and they had on strange uhmmm,, I guess you could call it a sail boat but! I wish I would of took one photo of it even sunk it would be a non dive and it looked kind of scary!
Oh well the locals and some tourists got to screw up the marina parking and had a reason to get drunk,
Dive Safe
Brad

 

[stevensondrive]

nice video Brad!
what depth were you at and what temp? I was surprised scavanger fish like cats weren't all over those dead fish.

Steve

 

[moneysavr]

Was in 120' range and temps mid 40's,
The lake after 50'-60' is kind of dead zone, one wreck site we located a rudder off the wreck site a hundred yards or so out as we headed back we found a dead lake trout,a month or so we did the same dive and the fish was still in about the same spot! to deep for cat fish and carp too.
Dive safe,
Brad