OP
Scott A McWilliam
Contributor
The Current Effort to Restrict Sport Diver Access to Shipwrecks in Ontario
Over the years there have been a great many plans to limit diver access to shipwreck sites in Ontario. With rare exceptions, these have fortunately all failed. Looking back on these some have been amusing. The main problem is that there is little money in underwater archaeology. While in terrestrial archaeology there is some research archaeology usually done by university academics with SSHRC etc., funding most of the bread and butter jobs are done by contract archaeologists. Housing developments, road construction, hydro, and pipeline right of ways often lead to the discovery of archaeological sites that often stops or delays development plans. An archaeologist is then employed as a remedy and the cost of the archaeological work is passed on to the developer.
Many of the plans to restrict diver access have been attempts by the Ministry to pass the costs of underwater archaeology on to the sport diving public. Going back thirty years the Provincial Underwater archaeologist advocated a program were each diver would pay a twenty-five-dollar fee for each dive they did on a shipwreck with the possibility of a thirty-five dollar or so season pass. The revenue generated from this program would go into a sixty-five-foot research vessel for the said Underwater Archaeologist to use and to hire more underwater archaeologist.
There has always been some effort to “control” the sport diving public and to restrict access to shipwrecks from the Ministry as advised by the Ontario Marine Heritage Committee.
At the 2019 annual Ontario Archaeological Society meeting Scarlett Janusas gave a talk entitled; Scarlett Janusas (Archaeology Inc.) gave an interesting paper, recognizing that Shipwrecks can be Cemeteries Too! The main thrust of her argument is a change to the Cemeteries Act and possibly the Canada Steamship Act to prohibit sport divers from diving on shipwrecks that “might” have human remains on them. That is an interesting idea. This prohibition would not be limited to wrecks with confirmed human remains but to sites that could possibly have human remains on them. She did note that this would be difficult if not impossible to enforce.
This is like a failure in logic. There are some things in life that “might” be there that you should avoid and change your behavior or course of action to steer clear of. Things like IEDs, Landmines, Herpes, and HIV, etc., things that can hurt you. Other things that go bump in the night and being afraid of the dark are really not that much of a problem.
Her test case is a shipwreck in Lake Huron that went down with a loss of Human Life and several horses. To make sure you are offending as many people as possible an effort was made to track down living family members so they can help you complain and close the site to divers.
To find out if there was a problem here the Ontario Provincial Police dive team was contacted. They have one of the most statistically successful recovery teams in North America and are well recognized for their considerable expertise and skill.
Police divers did visit the site but did not find any human remains. They did take a sample which was likely a wad of paper. Of course, when your experts come back, and they do not have the answer you want you to attack their credibility, education, and intelligence. Scarlet was quick to point out that they are not archaeologists and therefore did not know what they were doing. With a little more diving she did eventually produce a shot of a few human bones proving her point, at least in Scarlets mind. Obviously, if you are ever pulled over for something like a speeding ticket the correct course of action is to question the police officer’s credulity, education, and intelligence . . . I am sure they will understand you can just refer to Scarlet's research.
Then things just went “I told you not to drink the bong water,” crazy, or it was one of those rare cases of “FAKE” archaeology. Scarlet then began the tragic tale of “Old Whitey” and the Kamloops. The Kamloops is a deep shipwreck site at Isle Royale National Park. We were some of the first divers to explore the wreck shortly after its discovery including the ship's engine room. I was one of the crew that worked the site when the park did the initial archaeological survey and I made contributions that the Editor and then Chief archaeologist included in the final report.
Our understanding of the Kamloops Site also benefited from ROV footage done with a couple of National Geographic ROV’s. To the best of my knowledge Scarlet has never worked the site and I would be surprised if she has made a dive.
Scarlet also had an illustration, but it does not look like my work (or the Kamloops.) She had a picture of a shipwreck that is not in Lake Superior that was labeled Kamloops over which an illustration worthy of any eighth-grade art student had been imposed. This of course was “Old Whitey” now wearing a black sweater and wool hat. The illustration has no resemblance to the bodies on board the Kamloops.
Scarlet seemed to be a little miffed that the body was being referred to as “Old Whitey” by sport divers as this, in the least, is incongruent with her vision of political correctness. While this may be true and I am not one to judge, I do believe in evolution and I see this as a great advancement, great progress towards a degree of political correctness by the diving community that should have made Scarlet happy. The divers first to enter the engine room usually referred to the bodies as George and Blob. As you might suspect Blob is the one whose legs have fallen off. Callus as it might be it does illustrate the nature of the problem. Bodies in an advanced stage of decomposition are difficult to remove as they fall apart.
Two hundred feet of water does not make it any easier. They sleep in the deep and rest in peace, mess with them and they rest in pieces. If you do not want to see this type of thing or think it would disturb you don’t dive the site.
It is true that these bodies of long-lost sailors who died at their stations trying to save their ship are the most photographed bodies in the Great Lakes. I am not sure that something Scarlet perceives as a problem and bad behavior in Michigan is going to benefit or be remedied by a change in legislation in Ontario? Also, I am not sure how a couple of degrees in Anthropology make me or anyone else morally or ethically superior and, in any way, qualified to make this kind of judgment.
It has always been this way. One scheme after another to restrict or control access to shipwreck sites. The Ontario Heritage Act first became legislation in 1975 the same year the Ontario Marine Heritage Committee was formed. One of the principal mandates for OMHC and the Ministry was the development of a Submerged Cultural Resource Management Plan for Ontario. Now, forty-five years later they still have not produced one. An attractive option is to adopt and follow the UNESCO guidelines for submerged cultural resource management and they have not done that as well.
The president of OMHC has professionally impeacher herself and lost credibility and this may be an opportunity to effect a change. As I mentioned, with enough support we may be able to find a permeant remedy to this problem and reach an accommodation that is in the best interest of the resource and the diving public. I will wait a little longer for the Ministry to respond and then set up a closed group on Facebook to discuss a strategy.
Over the years there have been a great many plans to limit diver access to shipwreck sites in Ontario. With rare exceptions, these have fortunately all failed. Looking back on these some have been amusing. The main problem is that there is little money in underwater archaeology. While in terrestrial archaeology there is some research archaeology usually done by university academics with SSHRC etc., funding most of the bread and butter jobs are done by contract archaeologists. Housing developments, road construction, hydro, and pipeline right of ways often lead to the discovery of archaeological sites that often stops or delays development plans. An archaeologist is then employed as a remedy and the cost of the archaeological work is passed on to the developer.
Many of the plans to restrict diver access have been attempts by the Ministry to pass the costs of underwater archaeology on to the sport diving public. Going back thirty years the Provincial Underwater archaeologist advocated a program were each diver would pay a twenty-five-dollar fee for each dive they did on a shipwreck with the possibility of a thirty-five dollar or so season pass. The revenue generated from this program would go into a sixty-five-foot research vessel for the said Underwater Archaeologist to use and to hire more underwater archaeologist.
There has always been some effort to “control” the sport diving public and to restrict access to shipwrecks from the Ministry as advised by the Ontario Marine Heritage Committee.
At the 2019 annual Ontario Archaeological Society meeting Scarlett Janusas gave a talk entitled; Scarlett Janusas (Archaeology Inc.) gave an interesting paper, recognizing that Shipwrecks can be Cemeteries Too! The main thrust of her argument is a change to the Cemeteries Act and possibly the Canada Steamship Act to prohibit sport divers from diving on shipwrecks that “might” have human remains on them. That is an interesting idea. This prohibition would not be limited to wrecks with confirmed human remains but to sites that could possibly have human remains on them. She did note that this would be difficult if not impossible to enforce.
This is like a failure in logic. There are some things in life that “might” be there that you should avoid and change your behavior or course of action to steer clear of. Things like IEDs, Landmines, Herpes, and HIV, etc., things that can hurt you. Other things that go bump in the night and being afraid of the dark are really not that much of a problem.
Her test case is a shipwreck in Lake Huron that went down with a loss of Human Life and several horses. To make sure you are offending as many people as possible an effort was made to track down living family members so they can help you complain and close the site to divers.
To find out if there was a problem here the Ontario Provincial Police dive team was contacted. They have one of the most statistically successful recovery teams in North America and are well recognized for their considerable expertise and skill.
Police divers did visit the site but did not find any human remains. They did take a sample which was likely a wad of paper. Of course, when your experts come back, and they do not have the answer you want you to attack their credibility, education, and intelligence. Scarlet was quick to point out that they are not archaeologists and therefore did not know what they were doing. With a little more diving she did eventually produce a shot of a few human bones proving her point, at least in Scarlets mind. Obviously, if you are ever pulled over for something like a speeding ticket the correct course of action is to question the police officer’s credulity, education, and intelligence . . . I am sure they will understand you can just refer to Scarlet's research.
Then things just went “I told you not to drink the bong water,” crazy, or it was one of those rare cases of “FAKE” archaeology. Scarlet then began the tragic tale of “Old Whitey” and the Kamloops. The Kamloops is a deep shipwreck site at Isle Royale National Park. We were some of the first divers to explore the wreck shortly after its discovery including the ship's engine room. I was one of the crew that worked the site when the park did the initial archaeological survey and I made contributions that the Editor and then Chief archaeologist included in the final report.
Our understanding of the Kamloops Site also benefited from ROV footage done with a couple of National Geographic ROV’s. To the best of my knowledge Scarlet has never worked the site and I would be surprised if she has made a dive.
Scarlet also had an illustration, but it does not look like my work (or the Kamloops.) She had a picture of a shipwreck that is not in Lake Superior that was labeled Kamloops over which an illustration worthy of any eighth-grade art student had been imposed. This of course was “Old Whitey” now wearing a black sweater and wool hat. The illustration has no resemblance to the bodies on board the Kamloops.
Scarlet seemed to be a little miffed that the body was being referred to as “Old Whitey” by sport divers as this, in the least, is incongruent with her vision of political correctness. While this may be true and I am not one to judge, I do believe in evolution and I see this as a great advancement, great progress towards a degree of political correctness by the diving community that should have made Scarlet happy. The divers first to enter the engine room usually referred to the bodies as George and Blob. As you might suspect Blob is the one whose legs have fallen off. Callus as it might be it does illustrate the nature of the problem. Bodies in an advanced stage of decomposition are difficult to remove as they fall apart.
Two hundred feet of water does not make it any easier. They sleep in the deep and rest in peace, mess with them and they rest in pieces. If you do not want to see this type of thing or think it would disturb you don’t dive the site.
It is true that these bodies of long-lost sailors who died at their stations trying to save their ship are the most photographed bodies in the Great Lakes. I am not sure that something Scarlet perceives as a problem and bad behavior in Michigan is going to benefit or be remedied by a change in legislation in Ontario? Also, I am not sure how a couple of degrees in Anthropology make me or anyone else morally or ethically superior and, in any way, qualified to make this kind of judgment.
It has always been this way. One scheme after another to restrict or control access to shipwreck sites. The Ontario Heritage Act first became legislation in 1975 the same year the Ontario Marine Heritage Committee was formed. One of the principal mandates for OMHC and the Ministry was the development of a Submerged Cultural Resource Management Plan for Ontario. Now, forty-five years later they still have not produced one. An attractive option is to adopt and follow the UNESCO guidelines for submerged cultural resource management and they have not done that as well.
The president of OMHC has professionally impeacher herself and lost credibility and this may be an opportunity to effect a change. As I mentioned, with enough support we may be able to find a permeant remedy to this problem and reach an accommodation that is in the best interest of the resource and the diving public. I will wait a little longer for the Ministry to respond and then set up a closed group on Facebook to discuss a strategy.
