Published: October 02, 2008 08:00 pm      

Shipwrecks discovered in area waters

TRAVERSE CITY -- Northwest Michigan waters hold three, maybe four, shipwrecks recently discovered by a Grand Traverse County man and other shipwreck hunters.

"It's a passion for exploring. I love going places and finding things nobody's been to before and sharing that through photos and video," said Thaddius Bedford, of Mayfield, president of the Manitou Passage Underwater Preserve.

Two shipwrecks in the Manitou preserve were discovered in recent years, along with at least one shipwreck in Grand Traverse Bay. A second site in the bay could be another shipwreck, but it's in water that's too deep to dive in, so more research is needed beyond existing sonar images, Bedford said.

Bedford chose to reveal his finds now, years after their initial discoveries, because he's faced pressure to claim them before other shipwreck hunters grab the credit, he said.

Bedford found the Redfern in the summer of 2002 off Betsie Point in Benzie County with the help of Gaylord shipwreck hunter Stan Stock. The ship was built in 1890 as a schooner and was later retrofitted with two diesel engines and twin propellers.

The Redfern wrecked in September 1937 while carrying 400 cords of prime pulpwood and 15 crew members were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard, historical records show.

"They plucked the survivors off the ship and watched the ship go down," Bedford said.

Now it rests about 300 feet below the surface of Lake Michigan.

The other lost ship in the preserve is more of a mystery.

An 85-foot, turn-of-the-century "Rabbit" steamer was found intact a few years ago, east of South Manitou Island in about 200 feet of water. "We cannot figure out what wreck it is," Bedford said.

Bedford found that shipwreck with Chicago commercial diver Harry Zych, who intends to use a remotely operated underwater vehicle to capture more images and details of the three known wrecks and the one suspected wreck site, Zych said.

"It's pretty exciting. You're exploring a mystery. It's like a good detective novel. You have to read it and find out what the mystery is," Zych said.

In Grand Traverse Bay, Bedford found the Lauren Castle, a 93-foot tugboat that sank in November 1980 in 400 feet of water west of Power Island.

The last mystery find in the bay is in about 400 feet of water near Suttons Bay. Sonar images show that it "may be a geological formation, but it looks like a shipwreck," Bedford said.