27 May 2008

Countdown to Shipwreck Quest 2008!

Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates kicks off our annual ten day search for "ships gone missing" on Saturday, June 7 with reknown shiwpreck hunter David Trotter. Still out there waitng to be found are the Chicora, Andaste and Flight 2501.

I'll keep you updated here, but for real-time updates, join MSRA and you'll receive regular email messages about the search.

22 May 2008

Flight 2501 still elusive

Ralph Wilbanks and the NUMA tram have left Michigan and are headed back home to South Carolina and other areas haveing still not located the wreckage of Northwest Airlines Flight 2501. The elusive DC-4 airliner remains lost and we hope the team will return in 2009 to continue -- and complete! -- the search.

Ralph was again aided by his trusty boat pilot Steve Howard, and this year by Cameron Fletcher from Florida who provided the extra muscle needed to launch and retrieve the side scan sonar fish.

The NUMA team did locate two promising targets this spring. Both are boats, not planes. Divers will check them out soon.

Our thanks as or organization go to Clive Cussler, Dirk Cussler and the entire NUMA team for providing this tremendous support for our search for flight 2501. They have covered more square miles of bottom land in 5 years than we could have covered in 15.

06 May 2008

Shipwreck show a big success!

Yikes! It's been a while...

The 10th annual "Mysteries and Histories Beneath the Inland Seas" event was held in downtown Holland, Michigan's Knickerbocker Theatre on May 3 and the capacity crowd seemed to really enjoy the programs.

David Trotter and Ralph Wilbanks did a nice job with their portions of the program while Valerie van Heest updated everyone on all the ships still out there to be found. Val and I also did a live narration of the "Freshwater Monsoon" show.

We raised a bit of money, accepted a $1,000 grant from Great Lakes Shipwreck Research Foundation, announced that we have been granted official 501(c)(3) status and that the NUMA team has located two more targets that we need to get out and survey. One is a schooner and the other is a wooden steamer (or so it seems).

Thanks to everyone who came to the show!