The Daniel J Morrell in Lake Huron--Anybody been to see her?

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

Hello
Has anyone been down to visit the Daniel J Morrell? I am fairly new to diving, but would like to go she her someday. I know I am a couple of years off from my visit due to my training. My late father sailed on her. He decided to leave the ships to work in a factory to have more family time. He had only been off her a couple of years when she met her fate and knew many of the crewmen. He was a fireman on the boat.

Anyway, I was wondering what her condition is and what artifacts might be still around for me to see. If you have any photos, I would love to see them.

Thanks,
Leah

 

[diverbrian]

I plan on diving her Saturday afternoon (bow section). I will add your story to my list of things to remember.

I'll post here to let you know. Keep in mind that she is in 200 ft. of water, so she is a pretty deep dive.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

Hi DiverBrian,
Thanks for the reply. Hope you have a safe dive this weekend. Are you going to take any photos? Would love to have you email a couple to me if you are willing to do so.

What is the vis usually like in the that area? I will be looking forward to hearing about your dive. Thanks for being willing to share.

I know she is deep, so it will take me a while to build the skills that will let me make that trip. Until then, I will have to see her through your eyes.

Thanks,
Leah

 

[diverbrian]

I don't have camera equipment for that depth, but two of my buddies who are going do. I'll ask them if they mind sharing a few of the photos from the dive.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

Brian,
How was the dive? Did you guys get any pictures?

I called my Mom up in Michigan and had her pull out some of his seaman's papers and old photos. I have some photos of him in the engine room so one of the boats he was on. Not sure which one. He was on the Morrell in 62. He also was on the Johnstown, the Edward Y Townsend, and the David P Thompson. I am not sure how many other boats he might have been on. When I go up to Michigan at Christmas to see my Mom, I am going to try to catalog the info and also scan in the old photos.

Hope you had a good dive. Looking forward to hearing about it.
Leah

 

[diverbrian]

Leah,

My friends got some video, but the visibility was maybe 20 ft. down there. The verdict on how good that visibility was is waiting to for my friend to edit his video. Still, it remains an excellent dive. We dove the bow today. Next season, I intend to get out the stern. The weather was awesome for us today.

That "C" looks great on the mast and the bow is pretty much intact (except for being split away from the stern). We didn't swim to the break, but did swim through a couple of cargo holds on the ascent from 192 ft. The whole dive took 67 minutes with a bottom time of 25 minutes. The water had a pronounced thermocline at 70 ft. I wasn't reading my computer at the time, but it had to be a good 10-15 degrees warmer about that thermocline.

The anchors are still there and awesome. Zebra mussels (or their tougher cousins) are coating the wreck by the officer's quarters. I am guessing the sign on the door just under the pilothouse said "Wardroom" at one time, but all that I could read was "room" due to the mussels covering that particular area. We only poked our lights inside that room. We went into the pilothouse and I could imagine how crowded it be a busy day. It's tiny considering the size of the rest of this huge freighter.

The best word to describe the remains are tragic and humbling. It was a great dive, but in the way that it was like paying respect to the sailors who crewed on her by looking upon the remains of vessel that they cared for over so many years. It's difficult to believe that this would be built with steel that brittle, but then again, no one knew about brittle fracture of many hard metals in the cold until quite a while after the Daniel J. Morrell was built.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

Brian,
Thanks for the report. Let me know how the video turns out. I would love to get to see a copy of what you guys captured.

I will let you know what photos that we have maybe we can trade some pictures of her. I will be heading up to Michigan in December to see what my Mom has. It would be cool to see some then and now pictures. My Dad left in 1962 and she sank in 1966. So the pictures we have will be somewhere between 4-10 years before she sank.

 

[jbd]

leah,
Have you read the Coast Guard invetigation report form the sinking of the Daniel J Morrel?

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

jbd,
No, I haven't read the CG report. Have you read it? Do you have a link to it? Would love to read it. I would also like to see a blue print of the ship. I think it would be great to study before diving her. It would also give me something to do and dream about until I get to that level of diving.

 

[jbd]

http://greatlakeshistory.homestead.com/home.html
Scroll down and watch the lower left corner of the screen. You will come to a button titled Daniel J Morrell. Click on that and read away.