SHEBOYGAN, Wisconsin (19 May 2008) — On the night of July 19, 1922, a 101-foot wooden tugboat steamer named the Robert C. Pringle hit something in Lake Michigan about six miles offshore of Sheboygan, and sank to the bottom like a rock. The crew scrambled into lifeboats, made their way onto another ship that was being towed by the Pringle and steamed on to their destination in Ohio. For nearly 86 years, the wreck of the Pringle lay undisturbed 300 feet below the surface. That was until May 10, when divers from a crew put together by Steve Radovan, a longtime Sheboygan maritime historian, were able to lower themselves into the 38-degree water with a video camera and lights to identify the Pringle and capture images of the old tugboat, remarkably in near pristine condition. "It's a thrill, it really is," said Radovan, 61, who has been searching for sunken watercraft in Lake Michigan since the 1970s. The six minutes of murky video is clear enough to show details of the Pringle such as the ship's wheel, the bell, the massive engine housing and even some open cabinet drawers in the captain's quarters. Crewmembers who were videotaped as they clambered out of the water after discovering the wreck were ecstatic at what they found. "It's a beautiful wreck," said Bill Prince, who captained the 25-foot boat that carried Radovan and divers John Scoles and Tracy Xelowski to the area where they located the Pringle. "The intact pilot house, the ship's bell, the ship's wheel … everything's there," Prince said. "It really looks nice." News reports from 1922 said the Pringle sank about 12 miles offshore from Manitowoc. "I don't think the sailors knew where they were," Radovan said. "They were a little bit wrong." Radovan said he had been looking for the Pringle, built in 1903 in Manitowoc, for nearly 30 years, but didn't know exactly where it was. He found the wrecks of two other schooners, the Floretta and the Home, both of which sank in the 1800s, while searching for the Pringle. In 1993, a friend of Radovan's named Dan Kadarabek used sonar equipment to detect a ship sunk in an area off Sheboygan, roughly on a line extending east into the lake from Weeden Creek Road. At that time, Radovan thought it might be a sunken schooner named the Mediterranean. Even then, Radovan wanted to keep the location a secret, waiting for the "right opportunity" to venture out on the lake to take a look at it. He thought of using a remote controlled device before turning to Prince and his crew, who agreed to work for nothing just for the chance of finding a shipwreck in good condition. "Divers are always looking for something interesting to dive, and to dive on a virgin shipwreck, that's high on the list of any diver," Radovan said. The history of the Pringle began as a passenger-carrying steamer that worked Lake Superior near Ashland for the Chequamegon Bay Transportation Co. in 1903. A year later, it was acquired by Benson Transit to travel between Milwaukee and St. Joseph, Mich. The Pabst Brewing Co. then operated it from 1905 to 1908 for excursions between Milwaukee and the neighboring suburb of Whitefish Bay, where the brewery owned a resort. Subsequent owners ran it for several years on passenger runs on the Michigan side of the lake, before the Pringle line bought it in 1918 and converted it into a tugboat. "The exciting thing about this one is that it's a steamer that was very ornate," Radovan said. "It was originally in the passenger excursion trade, so it's got a lot of interesting accoutrements on it. When the divers went down they said, 'There's a big triple expansion engine sitting there and there's all gold leaf lettering on it.'" | | After searching for 30 years, Steve Radovan (above) and friends Bill Prince, John Scoles and Tracy Xelowski finally found the wreck of the Robert C. Pringle (below), which was used from 1905 to 1908 by the Pabst Brewing Co. to transport people to the Whitefish Bay Resort. The divers spent about 75 minutes underwater, but only about seven minutes at the bottom with the wreck because of the great depth. To reach the 300-foot depth, the divers were breathing from tanks containing a "tri-mix," a mixture of air, oxygen and helium, to remove the nitrogen from the air supply. "This allows them to breathe a mixture that isn't harmful to them," Radovan said, adding that they could stay down for a maximum of about 10 minutes on the bottom. Scoles was using a "rebreathing" apparatus, which scrubbed the carbon dioxide from his air supply, allowing him more time underwater. They were also wearing dry suits, which are more comfortable at those depths, Radovan said. Radovan took a risk on sending his camera, which cost about $2,000, down below the surface to such a depth. He initially did a test with his empty camera housing, lowering it to the bottom and pulling it back up. When the housing showed no leaks, he put the camera in it and gave it to the divers, who took it below to get the video pictures. "It wasn't the greatest arrangement in the world, but we did get some video," Radovan said. "We know what it looks like now." But why the ship sunk that summer night remains a mystery, for now. The next step for Radovan is to get Prince and his divers — who were so excited about the chance of finding a pristine shipwreck that they worked for free last weekend — back out on the lake in the next few weeks for some higher quality video. "We've got six minutes of video footage here, but that's just skimming the surface," he said. If successful, Radovan hopes to submit a copy of the video to the Wisconsin Historical Society for consideration of the wreckage of the Pringle as a national historic site. "You want to document it as much as possible, so the state has a record of it," he said. Prince, who last week was up on Lake Huron searching for another shipwreck, is also looking forward to returning to the Pringle, one of the few wrecks that haven't been disturbed by other divers over the years, or by the ravages of time and water. The boat will stay below the surface for future divers to see and enjoy. "All the artifacts on the wreck will stay in place and it will be a great showpiece for divers," Prince said. SOURCE - Sheboygan PressSCUBA FORUMDISCUSS THIS TOPIC - Dive in and have your say at Scuba Forum |
