Wayne Lusardi, Michigan State Underwater Archeologist

Lake Huron Red Tails! The Tuskegee Airmen Project

Beginning in August 2015, Michigan’s State Maritime Archaeologist Wayne R. Lusardi has led multiple expeditions to lower Lake Huron where in April 1944, a Bell P-39Q Airacobra flown by 22-year-old Tuskegee airman First Lieutenant Frank H. Moody, crashed into the lake during a World War II training exercise. Lt. Moody was killed, and the aircraft was not found until 2014. The State of Michigan, partnering with the National Museum of the Tuskegee Airmen in Detroit, is conducting archaeological survey, documentation, recovery and conservation of the aircraft and its components.

Bio: Wayne R. Lusardi is Michigan’s State Maritime Archaeologist with the Department of Natural Resources. His job includes researching and documenting the nearly 1,500 shipwrecks located in the state. He is involved in all aspects of fieldwork, survey, research, education and outreach. Wayne has an extensive background in underwater and terrestrial archaeology, artifact conservation, and material culture studies. He was previously employed as an archaeological conservator for the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia and excavated the USS Monitor’s turret after its recovery in 2002. Wayne also spent four years on the Blackbeard shipwreck project in North Carolina. He received his MA degree in Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology from East Carolina University in 1998, and a BS in anthropology from Illinois State University.

Dan Fountain

He Went Down with His Ship: New Discovery in Lake Superior

Join Upper Michigan diver and maritime historian Dan Fountain as he reveals the identity of a major new shipwreck discovery on Lake Superior that was made this summer. He will tell the dramatic story of the ship and her crew as well as the captain who went down with his ship.

Dan Fountain is a diver and maritime historian with an avid interest in the rich and colorful history of the early Great Lakes shipping industry. He grew up in the small Upper Michigan mining town of Ishpeming and spent his summers on the shores of Lake Superior. His first shipwreck “dive” took place at age eight – holding his breath and swimming down six feet to explore the scattered wreckage of the schooner George Sherman near the family camp on the lakeshore. For more than four decades, Dan has been diving, researching and searching for the shipwrecks of the Great Lakes.

Dan is the author of Michigan Gold and Silver: Mining in the Upper Peninsula, is co-author with Frederick Stonehouse of Dangerous Coast: Shipwrecks of the Pictured Rocks, and has written for Michigan History Magazine and Rocks and Minerals. He has also served as a guest lecturer aboard Great Lakes cruise ships.

Ken Merryman

The Search for and Discovery of the Henry Steinbrenner

The 427-foot Henry Steinbrenner was built in Port Huron, MI in 1901 for the Kinsman Transportation Company. It was one of several ore freighters built with telescoping hatch covers which were contributing factors to its sinking fifty-two years later in a Lake Superior storm on May 11, 1953. It sank thirteen miles south of Isle Royale Light killing seventeen of its thirty-one crew members as they tried to abandon the sinking ship. For Jerry Eliason and Ken Merryman, it was one of their most sought-after targets as it also was for several other search teams. Finding it in September of 2023 capped a nine-year intermittent search effort. Although their exploration and documentation of the 750-foot-deep site is far from done, they will share with you the early results of their discovery.

Bio: Ken Merryman is past president and founding member of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society. He is a retired computer engineer and a veteran speaker at scuba shows around the Great Lakes. Ken has been an avid Great Lakes shipwreck hunter and diver for 50 plus years and operated a scuba diving charter service for 40 years. Although his charter business operated mostly at Isle Royale National Park, he also frequents all of the Great Lakes diving and searching for new shipwrecks with his shipwreck hunting partner of thirty years Jerry Eliason. Their shipwreck hunting partnership is responsible for the discovery of thirty shipwrecks and the initial exploration and documentation of a half dozen more including the discovery of the deepest shipwreck found in the Great Lakes the Scotiadoc at 870 ft deep. In efforts to preserve these discoveries through the GLSPS and often in cooperation with Wisconsin Historical Society he has helped add eight shipwrecks to the National Register of Historic Places. In cooperation with the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport they have done the initial documentation to list five of the discoveries as archaeological sites. Now their initial documentation includes photogrammetry models and Ken is leading a massive GLSPS project to create a database of photogrammetry models of all Great Lakes Shipwrecks crowd sourced through the diving community. The last seven summers Ken and friends have been circum-navigating the Great Lakes in his 1947 Owens Cruiser. He has cruised over 22,000 miles covering most of all five of the lakes finding ten new shipwrecks and creating over a hundred and fifty shipwreck photogrammetry models along the way.

Producer Yvonne Drebert and Director/Cinematographer Zach Melnick

All Too Clear: Using ROVs to Explore the Great Lakes

Documentary filmmakers, Yvonne Drebert and Zach Melnick, are using cutting-edge underwater drones to explore how quadrillions of tiny invasive mussels are re-engineering the ecosystem of the Great Lakes, at a scale not seen since the glaciers. While shooting for their latest film, All Too Clear, the team made an unexpected discovery - the wreck of the Africa. The ship was lost during an early season snowstorm in 1895, with eleven sailors aboard. In the summer of 2023 Melnick and Drebert found the wreck off the Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula - to solve the 128-year-old mystery of what became of the Africa.

Bio: Producer Yvonne Drebert and Director/Cinematographer Zach Melnick are the founders of Inspired Planet Productions. From their home on the beautiful Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula in Ontario, Canada, the husband-and-wife team have created more than 40 hours of nature and history documentary spanning two decades, including the 2021 Canadian Screen Award nominated series, Striking Balance. Driven by a profound concern for the global decline of freshwater ecosystems, Drebert and Melnick have embarked on a dedicated mission into the underwater world. Using cutting-edge ROVs (remotely operated underwater vehicles), they immerse themselves in rarely seen aquatic environments, capturing extraordinary wildlife behaviours, and even discovering the occasional shipwreck. Their mission is threefold: to inspire the public, deepen scientific understanding, and enlighten decision-makers about the freshwater ecosystems we all depend on. http://alltooclearfilm.com/

Brendon Baillod & Bob Jaeck

Discovery and Documentation of the Schooner Trinidad – A Case Study in Managing Shipwreck Finds

Wisconsin Maritime Historians Brendon Baillod and Robert Jaeck located the remains of the schooner Trinidad off Algoma, Wisconsin on July 15, 2023 as the result of a deliberate search. The vessel, which lay in 270 ft of water was in exceptional condition, with her deckhouse intact, containing all the artifacts of daily life from her loss in 1881. Join Baillod and Jaeck as they tell the story of this ship’s interesting and important career in Great Lakes commerce of the 1860s and 70s as well as the dramatic story of her loss. Baillod and Jaeck will also tell the story of how the ship was documented with help from the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Maritime Archeology program and how cutting edge technology was used to interpret the site to the public. Baillod and Jaeck will be giving virtual tours of the wreck using a 3D virtual reality headset throughout the Ghost Ships Festival.

Brendon Baillod

Bob Jaeck

Greg Such

VCI - Visual Cylinder Inspection® Course & VCIR - Visual Cylinder Inspection® Refresh Course

March 1st 8am to 4pm

This is the core certification course provided by PSI-PCI and in it we teach the regulations and fundamentals of conducting visual inspections of solid wall and composite SCUBA and SCBA cylinders. The full day course is suited for those new to visual inspection as well as those who have been inspecting without formal training through its wide range of inspection subjects including damage limits, neck cracking and other cylinder issues, plus laws affecting inspectors. Additionally, this course meets the OSHA and DOT requirements for employee HAZMAT training and attendants completing the course are qualified to conduct HAZMAT training for cylinder handlers. The course also provides an overview of a variety of associated topics including requalification, oxygen cleaning, valve repair, tools, and more. For more formal training on these topics refer to Specialties below.

It is the only training formally endorsed, referred to and utilized by the cylinder manufacturers; and recognized by USDOT, Compressed Gas Association, NFPA and others. It continues to be the most up to date training available today on this subject.

Previously certified inspectors may attend this full course under the VCIR for re-qualification (see below). The course is open to anyone 16 years or older and no previous cylinder inspection experience is required. Participants receive a certificate for Visual Cylinder Inspection upon course completion valid for 3 years per Federal training requirements.

Course cost is $325.00 with pre registrations mandatory by Feb 28th 2024.

Contact Greg Such @ 815.378.8152 to enroll

A portion of tuition will be donated back to the Ghost Ships group