Lake Erie's Dundee and Admiral Shipwrecks

As a backstage stagehand in musical theatre, I am often touring across the United States, which means I have the opportunity to dive some less traveled dive locales as well as some popular stomping grounds. It also means that I must dive on Monday, our only day off so I’m usually left to filling a dive charter myself for a less-than-popular day of the week. On our current tour with the Broadway production of Mary Poppins the Musical, I found myself in Cleveland booking a boat for myself and five colleagues who luckily happen to also be divers. However, our group is a mix of experience levels from Open Water to Technical, so my solution is to book a dive that will accommodate the diver with the least amount of experience, yet give all of us a fun time underwater. I chose two wrecks, a schooner called The Dundee and a steel tug called The Admiral. They were listed in the guide book as intermediate to advanced level open water and I have come to believe that there are no easy wrecks in the Great Lakes. Discovery Dive Charters of Wildwood Marina was recommended to me by my good friend Chris Kohl and he was spot on. Discovery Dive Charters helped load our dive gear, served good food and helped us gear up. If you’re diving in Cleveland, be sure to try them out.

The Dundee is a one and a half hour boat ride to the site. On this particular day, the weather was beautiful and the lake smooth as glass. We divided into two groups and I watched the first group descend and immediately pancake to the floor in the low visibility. Did I mention that Lake Erie is very silty? Descending with the second group I entered a mushroom cloud of chocolate milk as the silt below engulfed us. The wreck itself was about 15 feet away from a permanent anchor connected by ¼" line. I was able to descend thru the muck, run my hand along the anchor and find the line. With the line in hand, I was able to lead the second team to the Dundee. Once on the wreck, the visibility cleared to about ten feet. I tied my cave line to the Dundee’s guide line and spooled out down the center of the deck starting at the bow and reaching two-thirds across the ship. Here the visibility cleared to fifteen feet and I tied off the line. One of my dive mates shot video while the other explored the starboard side rail.

Michael Angelo swims over the wreck of The Dundee, Lake Erie (Michael Angelo Gagliardi)

The Dundee had been carrying coal when she went down in the 1890’s so there wasn’t much to see inside. At first glance the wreck resembles a large wooden cave or the inside of a long crate. There seems to be lots of silt, but not much else. However, if you look close you can see just how an old schooner was built. In fact if you ever wanted to study ship construction the Dundee is a good choice to study. The deck is where there is the most to learn. Exiting about mid ship I saw a large windlass along its chain and wooden bucks. Large boat cleats line the rails where sailors would have tied off lines from the mast. The Dundee is unusual in that it used cleats instead of dead eyes in its rigging. Coming back to my cave reel we reeled it back in and swam to the bow.

Right: >Diving the murky Lake Erie waters (Michael Angelo Gagliardi)

Discover Dive Charters served hot soup and sandwiches during our surface interval and gave us superb dive briefing on the history of The Admiral. Our group decided I would descend first and tie my cave reel to the anchor located at 50 feet and put a temporary guide line high above the silt to the top of the wreck. Visibility was less than ten feet when I began unspooling line. It took three passes and forty feet of line before I found The Admiral. Our intermediate dive had turned into an advanced dive very quickly. Although incredibly silty, The Admiral is a beautiful wreck. Not to be taken lightly, only divers trained in overhead environments should attempt to penetrate as even a well placed kick will result in silt outs and bubble percolation. Inside the engine room, I swam to the boilers and turned my dive. The newer divers in our group were smart enough not to attempt swimming inside.

M.A. diving the Dundee and Admiral (Michael Angelo Gagliardi)

After 30 minutes, I had seen all I wanted to see and was getting light from doing two dives on one set of tanks. It was time to call the dive. I gave my dive buddy a thumbs up and he responded by videotaping me. I gave another thumbs up and he continued filming. Finally, I gestured to the line and gave one last thumbs up. More great footage! A dive instructor once told me that the only time a photographer pays any attention to his buddy is when his buddy is attacked by a shark AND it’s in frame. Just my luck the Great Lakes doesn’t have any sharks. So I took my light and placed it right against the camera lens. That got his attention. My other buddy was carrying a pony bailout bottle. By this point I was low enough on air to become positively buoyant. I asked my buddy for his bailout bottle, but now I had lost the cameraman again! I could have left the wayward buddy or left the reel, but having set up the dive and chosen the wrecks, I felt a personal responsibility to see everyone off the wreck and safely to the ascent line. I did one more swim around the boat looking for the missing buddy. Finally, everyone is on the line and we ascend and climb aboard our boat. A few days later I would be watching the video of me searching for the missing cameraman who was in my blind spot filming me search for him.

Michael Angelo Gagliardi