Report w/video, Lake WA wrecks

[rjack321]

From last weekend with my UTD buddies in Lake Washington. I find the targets and drive the boat, they take the video Depth is about 85ffw, vis was darn good compared to some other sites we tried to dive. We did three dives this day so more video to come, but that's why there's 32% bottom stages in use on a rec dive with doubles.

The Revenue Cutter Scout's history is a bit murky, apparently there were two possible "Scouts" 82-85ft, both built c.1900. So its pretty hard to know which one this was. We didn't need the reel, just brought it along in case the vis was dreadful or we wanted to measure something. Since the Scout is "known" we didn't do any measuring/survey.

USRC Scout on Vimeo

 

[ligersandtions]

Thanks for the video! As I was watching, I realized that it's kinda weird to see wood wrecks underwater since we don't have any (that I've seen) locally.

 

[rjack321]

The wooden wrecks we have in saltwater are not nearly so intact. But we have lots of them too. More of those videos links on my FB page (where I'm tagged), I sent you a friend request ligersandtions.

I have a video cam on my CSI X scooter, but I'm plenty busy finding sites to dive, doing fills, and keeping the boat up - so I'm not so heavy into the video $$ and editing time.

 

[nadwidny]

Why is there a Revenue boat in a lake? Is the link between Lake WA and the ocean big enough that boats could pass back and forth?

 

[HenrikBP]

Very nice video. Looks like a great dive. Thanks for sharing.

Henrik

 

[rjack321]

Why is there a Revenue boat in a lake? Is the link between Lake WA and the ocean big enough that boats could pass back and forth?

Yes, the Lake Washington ship canal is plenty big. They were quite the busy beavers back in the early 1900s. The ship canal was finished to boat traffic in 1917.
HistoryLink.org- the Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History

The ship canal basically re-plumbed the entire watershed and instead of Lake Washington & the Cedar River overflowing through a marshy wetland into the Black River in Renton, WA - the Lake was lower by about 9ft(?) creating drier land at the south end and discharges to Puget Sound through Lake Union and the ship canal.

Lake Washington had several shipyards and lumber mills along its shores before being taken over by residential development. Before the floating bridges were built, numerous small steamers ferried passengers back and forth too. At least 6 of these ~100ft steamers are still in the Lake. Along with multiple WW2 era minesweepers, a bunch of barges, numerous miltary planes from the former Naval airstation, and some tugs and yachts.

The planes were crashes while most of the rest were scuttled when they outlived their useful lives or after fires. Max depth is right about 205ffw so they are all accessible on 32, 21/35 or 18/45. Vis is generally <8-15ft. Water temps at depth 45F and up to about 64F above the thermocline in summer. No zebra mussels. We're spoiled with relatively accessible history here.

Map:
lake washington - Google Maps