Ships and Shipwrecks | Great Lakes Now Full Episode

on this edition of Great Lakes no I go out on the only boat in the country with his own zip code look at that just awesome we take you aboard a 740 foot Great Lakes freighter and we dive into some incredible shipwrecks that you don't necessarily need a scuba tank to see I mean it's one of the best freshwater collection of shipwrecks anywhere in the world and people don't know that Great Lakes now is brought to you by the Fred a and Barbara M Erb Family Foundation Lauri and Tim Wadhams the Richard C Deveraux foundation for energy and environmental programs at Detroit Public Television the pulk Family Fund even jerry young the americana foundation the Brooke B foundation and the consumers Energy Foundation is committed to serving Michigan from preserving our state's natural resources and sustaining our future to continuing business growth academic achievement and community involvement learn more at consumers energy.com slash Foundation and viewers like you thank you hi I'm war Detweiler welcome back to Great Lakes now where we explore the five lakes and what they mean to our lives one of the most impressive sights we all see on the lakes are the huge crater it's moving cargo most the time we see them there way up on the horizon but today I'm getting the chance to see one right up close I'm in Detroit on the banks of the Detroit River and this is the headquarters of the JW Westcott company home of the country's only floating sub Baker Jim Hogan is the owner of the company today but has been in his family for generations so Jim tell us who were looking at here on the wall on the wall is the founder of the company my great-grandfather captain JW Escott he was born in 1848 and created this company in 1874 Jim's great-grandfather started the business by delivering messages to passing ships in a rowboat nearly a century and a half later letters to Great Lakes traders with marked for 80222 and get delivered on the boat that bears the Westcott name and today I get to go along on deliveries I'm with Captain bill reading via the crew are picking up mail from a freighter that's getting fueled up on the Detroit River the process is low-tech but effective a pail is lowered to the Wescott without going mail if there was mail for the crew of the boat they would go in the pail and get pulled back up I'm just amazed to be standing right next to the hull of this enormous freighter I'm already like a wide-eyed kid but the Manitowoc was docked to fuel up what the Westcott is known for is making deliveries to freighters that are moving no matter the conditions Brian chicory started with the company only last year he's already seen the river get angry did a delivery last year deliver a crew member right off the west guy here to a freighter down here 8 foot swells and you can see how far the father bow was out of the water it was going under oh wow and we did a crew change with that right out here it was like my third or fourth day here scared the crap out of me but uh I came back the next day and been here ever since the Wescott will deliver just about anything the freighters need they deliver a lot of packages and they stock some essential supplies that sailors can't do without they'll even deliver pizzas they'll come down here no order from uh pizza joint right down the street and then no delivered to us we take it put it in their delivery box and send it right off the side of the ship on a rope but they uh the guys love that yeah before we're back from the Manitou walk another call comes in for male ok victory one hour below the tugboat victory will be pushing a barge past in about an hour and they're wondering if there's anything waiting for them ok yeah I'll give you a shout back here in just a few minutes cap but there's another run to make before the victory arrives captain Sam Buchanan is making sure all is well in the engine room with you here on bail that's the boat we'll take out to meet the esta Dagon yeas and this time we'll make it delivery to a boat that's moving but this time we're not delivering mail this ship needs a pilot ships coming into the Great Lakes from overseas have to take on a pilot to navigate pilots like Brett Walker are basically captains who specialized in steering through the Great Lakes [Music] they have duraline skills for sure but they can't be expected to know all the nuance of every waterway and all along the way and that's where we can go pretty important especially as you're winding through the river well we're cheap insurance for the public because we ensure that there's gonna be no accidents no groundings no pollution and inside no cost to the government it's all aboard by the shipper now we make our approach the closer we get to the 400 foot s today Gagne is the smaller the 50 foot here on Belfield captain Sam snugs the Huron Bell right up to the freighters haul this is pretty much what I do all day I run into face I perform controlled collisions for the jws guy open to the tune of I've done it about 50,000 times they figure now they're not all controlled unfortunate or no damage you know just a little bump you know to where you know you feel it if you can feel it I kind of grade myself poorly but you know sometimes it's uncontrollable if you have a really bad weather day you're going to bounce up and down and you just can't control that fortunately I've never done any damage nothing significant it turns out delivering a pilot is a lot like delivering the mail but instead of a pail the crew of the freighter drops down a rope ladder and the pilot climbs out so we've delivered our pilot up onto the boat here and he's going up to the bridge right now to go get the pilot that we're taking off so they're doing a little bit of a changeover right here you must forget that we're moving right now I mean you look at that you look at the freighter and we're still then you look at the water and we're actually still cruising down the river that's pretty cool and watch him go up the ladder ester we're underway I mean it's a lot more hair-raising to my job today things are pretty calm can you imagine doing this with six foot waves I think I'd call in sick but for these guys is just another day at the office so you guys deliver the mail and the freight you deliver the pilots yep do you guys ever see anything a rescue sea rescued so many people I really should have kept count really we've rescued quite a few people over the years you know the last I think rescue we had was a fella he jumped in up the river all the rescue boats missed him I don't know it's nighttime out so he heard somebody screaming from the river so we told my god yeah so you just caught him like he was just passing in you oh wow there's no time to rest the upbound tanker algo scotia needs a pilot so we're making another run oh there are the Scotia hey there just wanted to confirm his feet this is pretty cool captain Sam brings the Huron doll in for another perfect controlled collision and the pilot climbs aboard safely they said seven and a half knots but seems like we're going faster rather than a gun I've never been up next to a freighter flying through the river like this I'm gonna take some my own video real quick if there's a pool look at that's so cool okay that's just awesome it's the freighter pulls up the ladder we're passing under the Ambassador Bridge that connects the US and Canada yeah I mean that's so cool to go under passing with the freighter I've been tied up not seen tied up just nudge stuff along the freighter going under the bridge I mean that's a sight you don't get to see very often it's so cool but remember the victory the tugboat that called for mail earlier well it's about to pass by pushing the barge mommy so it's back to the Wescott to deliver their mail this is really fun this is awesome we view our town like all sorts of you know childhood dream is being an ADA right here I was there portside we're gonna go to the portside fantail in the tub behind the barge so we're gonna sneak up sneak up me behind the barge if this barge looks like a freighter to you that's because it was a freighter before was modified to be used as a self unloading barge integrated with the tug victory which pushes it from behind tell everybody to hang on to the harder maneuver that I normally do and it gets pretty choppy it might be a tricky maneuver the captain Sam makes it look pretty easy this time the male is handed over directly because the tug is a lot shorter than the freighters haul in a moment we're clear the captain Sam and tug exchange a farewell with their horns [Music] so what are you telling each other basically that's a great lake salute or that's our way of just saying you know thank you see you next time and we also use it as a safety tool to let him know that I am clear and ready to go and with that my time with the crew is at an end but I think I'll be back I can't get enough of this that was such an incredible experience and something that I've wanted to do since I was a little kid having grown up on the river and watching the freighters go behind you don't realize what an integral role company like JW Wescott plays in the shipping on the Great Lakes it's just incredible to see it in action in our next story partner station W PBS in Watertown New York takes us on board one of these enormous freighters we'll get to meet the crew and get a glimpse of what life is like on board we've all seen them massive ships navigating through the Great Lakes in the st. Lawrence Seaway transporting cargo to various ports such as Thunder Bay Buffalo and Montreal they're huge majestic and mysterious what happens on these ships what goes on behind the scenes what is the crew like in short what is it like to live and work on one of these freighters my name is Wilson Walters I'm captain of the ship 2 CSL Wellum and I've been with CSL for 25 years I grew up in a little town in neukölln Canada and you grow up in this town Your Honor fish or you go away to look for work and fishing was starting to die so a lot of the people from my town had come to the Great Lakes and found work and they enjoy but they were doing so I thought I would come up and see what it was all about I think on day one I was sold I got on a ship and went you know what I think this is for me the CSI Welland is a Seaway Max vessel meaning that at 740 feet long and 78 feet wide it's as big as a ship can be and still fit through the locks at the st. Lawrence Seaway working on this enormous Laker breeds a unique routine and lifestyle all its own much of the 15-member crew found themselves drawn away from a typically nine-to-five job for a career on the water for good pay and something different although weeks if not months away from home can be challenging we spoke with several crewmen most who have come from northern Canada but a few who have travelled as far as the Philippines and a couple of Cadets in training to learn about their life on their home away from home deck cadets over kind of like apprentice officers so we try to learn as much as we can every day about basically every operation that happens on the ship so when we're on deck we learn as much about general seamanship practices like using the winches you know setting up gangways accommodation ladders like launching lifeboats you know how to use survival crafts when we're on the bridge we learn as much as we can about navigation and using the navigation equipment to its fullest potential and yeah we just we try to learn as much as we can every day and yeah there's no limit to how much you can learn on that that's for sure I usually work about 8 to 10 hours a day and then because I'm a cadet I have to do some some homework for my school so that probably takes up one or two hours of my day and then I'll probably try to fit in a workout for about an hour a day and then I have two or three hours left either to for myself either as free time or to watch a movie or or just to relax I started off as a cadet and went to third mate and then second mate for a while and then chief mate for ten years now I'll get to training in and I'm hoping to be captain now later on this fall are you going to different ports and no two ports are exactly the same you might go back to the same port but it might not be the same conditions so every time you load a boat or on load of old it's basically it's a new experience we got access to lots of things there's a gym place you play darts watch TV Internet the rooms are nice we do have Wi-Fi I work for meet to five in the engineer I get up morning I have breakfast got in the engine room and wonder there's watch engineer so tell me what I'm gonna do today I wake up in the morning and just to know that I'm gonna be doing something that I like to do every day I could remember my first day it was pretty positive what have I got myself into you it was a big difference from what I did before I mean obviously seeing this massive ship I start work at 4 or 4 a.m. and I finished at 8 a.m. and then I start again at 4 p.m. but on the ship we say is 1600 and finish Eddie and do security rounds we sound tanks make sure there's no water we clean we we maintain ropes we make sure like everything is secured we assist in what the the dock goes for unloading if they need anything or if they need any axes open we open up the arches clothes dachas in my downtime I talk with family any chance that I could get my wife my two kids my mom my dad I'm the third mate so I'm the safety officer representative so I'm in charge of the watching watch keeping for about eight hours a day normally about day twelve watch and normally in my off watch I'll be doing checks around the boat like safety wise like checking the fire extinguishers fire hoses anything safety orientated I got a check and make sure it's okay and working I have an alarm that goes off about seven o'clock and I normally take about 20 minutes to like get ready and then go head down for about 7:30 to have breakfast then I head up to the wheelhouse at rode on the lake and keep an eye out and just make sure we don't run into anything and keep the boat safe as best I can and just get us to our destination safely really so generally as a mate as you're coming in you're spotting distances for the captain up top since we're about 700 plus feet away and he can't see 700 feet away so you're basically his eyes so you're spotting from the shoulder which is about right where we're standing and you're tying giving him distances he is off the wall how close he's getting in and then when I was here going into the lock you tell him when the bow was approximately at the centerline so he gets a rough idea how quickly he's coming in how slowly he's coming in so he doesn't come in too quick or come in too slow like if you do a job that you love you don't feel like you're working I've got 40 years working on ships and I can't find five days of my life and I said I don't like what I do I don't love what I do I love my job I enjoy being out here I enjoyed the time out I love working with the people that I have on my ship so for me it's work but it's a great job the sacrifices by all means this wasn't easy this wasn't an easy road for my family he sacrificed a lot to see me gone a lot and then come home and go to school my kids my wife sacrifice immensely but I always convinced them it was a means to a hint that's when I became captain they'd seen the means to the ends they'd seen that you know what it paid off now I have lots of time off we travel we do a lot of stuff together we're great family next time you see a freighter on the Great Lakes or the st. Lawrence Seaway look beyond its mighty haul carving through the waves think of people like Captain Walters and his crew who use their navigational and technical expertise to help carry this multi-billion dollar international industry on their shoulders but also remember that they may not be too different from you if you have questions about life aboard freighter Great Lakes now has a way for you to ask them go to Great Lakes now.org and tell us what you want to know we'll select some questions to ask a Great Lakes freighter captain then will report the answers back to you people have been navigating the waters of the Great Lakes for over 12,000 years and the lakes have claimed their share of ships hundreds of those shipwrecks are preserved within the Great Lakes only National Marine Sanctuary in Thunder Bay [Music] I guess the thing I love about diving the most is it's just so quiet and peaceful I mean it's one of the best freshwater collection of shipwrecks anywhere in the world and people don't know that believe it or not this is Lake Huron just off of the coast of Alpena Michigan where the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration operates the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary Stephanie gondola is one of the sanctuaries maritime archeologists the accessibility is what's really special about the collection of shipwrecks here in Thunder Bay so we have super deep shipwrecks that are very intact with their masts standing upright 90 feet in the water calm then we have the very shallow shipwrecks that are accessible to not to scuba divers if paddlers kayakers fishermen snorklers sailors can go out and access these shipwrecks and visit these sites even glass-bottom boat viewers the cold fresh water of Lake Huron preserves almost a hundred identified shipwrecks within the sanctuaries 4,300 square miles visitors can see the wrecks on the water and on land at the Great Lakes maritime heritage center a museum that's part of the sanctuary you know the fact that you have a federal resource like that with archaeologists and historians and that kind of knowledge and expertise there they're teaching us about them they're teaching us about what our way of life was back then a lot of the important work we do is of course on land we do have our 10,000 square foot Visitor Center where we're at right now we're almost a hundred thousand people visit every year from all around the world and we also do a many outreach and educational events Nick Meyers works as the captain of a dive boat that goes out to the wrecks today he and some sanctuary staffers are helping students learn about diving and marine archaeology careers well our goal today is really allowing these kids to experience weightlessness and breathing underwater science of the sanctuary class for the high school and we're doing our class for scuba diving and we're learning how to do like underwater archaeology and all of the stuff that's going on like with the NOAA Center was saying to somebody the other day when I'm on this my mask is always leaking because I can't stop smiling while I'm under there under the water watching these kids I mean it's it's just a blast to see them experience this most of them you know for the first time even having a mask and fins on their feet after training in the pool these students can move on to the nearby sanctuary waters but they won't need to become expert divers to visit some of the wrecks some like the Nord Mir are barely below the surface the Nord mer is the most recent shipwreck within sanctuary waters it ran aground in 1966 and it was in such shallow water that for decades much of it still stuck up of the surface of the water today it has finally collapsed down just just below the surface and it is a wonderful snorkeling and scuba diving site it's over 500 feet long and it's about 30 plus feet wide and so there's so much to see diver and Toledo Blade videographer Andy Morrison has filmed and photographed the Nord Mir extensively you can stand on the back of the boat you can look down you can see the engines you jump in you're on the engines a lot of swim-throughs and swimmer rounds and swim overs and unders and it's just a huge twisted steel playground for for divers the writing of the name on the hull is still visible that the gauges you can still see so the preservation makes it a really exciting sight even at a shallow depth the mono handset is an older wreck that's also in shallow water the mana handset is probably the most visited shipwreck within sanctuary waters it's an old wreck it was built in 1872 burned to the waterline in 1907 they were a wooden ship and they were carrying coal and in the middle of the night a lantern spilled over in the engine room and of course there was a fire the mana handset burns the waterline and sits there still today there's kind of a flat in the hull it's only in about 18 feet of water I think but the water most of the time is gin clear there's a little bit of fish on it there's a beautiful propeller on it that that sticks up out of the sand a lot of people like to take pictures there and video there and everything older still and a more advanced dive is the EB Allen which went down in 1871 and sits about a hundred feet below the surface as you descend on the wreck you can see the the full outline of the ship's hull beautiful wooden hull and off the port bow you can see the collision hole and it's just big enough if you have the training to to do a swim through and go through that collision hole and then you're within the hull of the ship you're inside the ship and it's it's a great sight to just swim the whole length of this this wooden schooner [Music] it sits upright it's fairly intact it it has that classic looking you know freighter bow wooden freighter bow when you come down on it and that's one thing I think that I I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing is when you're descending on a shipwreck and the ebee islands and one of those that's sort of like that it it stands tall even though it's sitting 100 feet deep you know but you can still see that it's a proud wreck kind of a special special wreck one of the key things that I think the sanctuary brought to the preservation of these shipwrecks is it's truly the awareness I think the people of Alpena are lucky to have the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary there but I also think not just them but the state of Michigan and the whole Great Lakes region is lucky to have NOAA there so you know it's really important that NOAA has a presence here in the Great Lakes there are dozens more shipwrecks in the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and the staff continues to map and research the wrecks but there are shipwrecks in all of the Great Lakes and we may soon have more national marine sanctuaries in the waters off of Wisconsin Pennsylvania and New York a success that we have seen here in Alpena with Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary has has inspired other communities around the Great Lakes to champion and nominate their communities for National Marine Sanctuary status and we're really excited to to be a part of that and to inspire this in other communities across the Great Lakes that's our show for now thanks for watching for more on these stories and the great lakes in general visit Great Lakes now org when you get there you can follow us on social media or subscribe to our newsletter to get updates about our work see you out on the lakes Great Lakes now is brought to you by the Fred a and Barbara M Erb Family Foundation Laurie and Tim Wadhams the Richard C Deveraux foundation for energy and environmental programs at Detroit Public Television the pulk Family Fund even jerry young the americana foundation the brook B foundation and the consumers Energy Foundation is committed to serving Michigan from preserving our state's natural resources and sustaining our future to continuing business growth academic achievement and community involvement learn more at consumers energy.com slash Foundation and viewers like you thank you [Music]

Channel: Detroit Public TV

Views: 184,222

Rating: 4.8742857 out of 5

Keywords: detroit public tv, detroit pbs, wtvs

Id: 4Xob_uT822A

Length: 26min 46sec (1606 seconds)

Published: Tue May 28 2019