The seven men aboard the Floretta escaped in a lifeboat just a half-mile away as the iron ore schooner sank at the bow and exploded off the shore of Manitowoc in September 1885.
The wreckage of the 134-foot-long, 26-foot-wide schooner sits in 180 feet of water where it sank in Lake Michigan, said maritime archeologist Tamara Thomsen.
"The Floretta sits there basically as if she went down yesterday," Thomsen said. "Everything that was on board the ship in 1885 is down there and hasn't deteriorated at all."
In about a year, Thomsen and state archaeologist John Broihahn will take the 180-foot dive to document the Floretta and four other Lake Michigan shipwrecks with $170,000 from a $1 million federal grant awarded to the Wisconsin Historical Society in November by the Federal Highway Administration Transportation Enhancement program.
Documentation includes digital photo mosaics, measured sketches, photographs, site plans and historic research. The five wrecks were chosen because they represent significant vessel types and evolution in construction. Broihahn, Thomsen and a team of 10 divers will spend about two weeks on the Floretta.
"We see these grants not as providing us with basic documentation but as a statewide outreach effort to tell these different stories," Broihahn said. "What we are really talking about are the men and women who worked on the Great Lakes, made their living on the Great Lakes and unfortunately some that died on the Great Lakes."
The documentation is intended to add the five wrecks to the other 38 Wisconsin wrecks listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which will add protection and oversight to the wrecks. Broihahn also said buoys will be placed at each site so divers can safely anchor their boats without damaging the wreck.
The other wrecks include the S.S. Milwaukee, a steel rail car ferry lost near Milwaukee in October 1929; the EMBA, an early self-unloading vessel scuttled off Milwaukee in December 1932; the American, a three-masted canaller lost Kewaunee in September 1880; and the Lakeland, an iron steamer loaded with new automobiles lost off Sturgeon Bay in December.
The historical society is using the grant as part of the $77 million Forward! campaign that launched Oct. 1, said Ellsworth Brown, director of the society. It focuses on transforming historic sites, embracing technology to engage audiences, safeguarding historic collections and securing the future by creating a public-private interest in the state's history.
"We are using a balance to seek more members and tell our story better, anchor fundraising and have a good Wisconsin historical foundation," Brown said. "We have found people's stories of the communities of these shipwrecks that go beyond what government does and reaches into lives."
Brown said the society aims to "collect, preserve and share stories."
"We've been successful, and people are passionate about it. When you get over the textbook names in history class, it's who we are and what happened in our communities that touches the heartstrings and is important."
To donate to the Forward! campaign, visit forwardcampaign.org, call toll-free at 1-888-748-7479, or send donations to Brown at 816 State St., Madison, WI 53706.
For more information on the shipwrecks, visit www.wisconsinshipwrecks.org and www.maritimetrails.org/
Author: Emily Ann Holman | Source: HTR News [November 22, 2010]