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 Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society

Dedicated to Preserving our Shipwrecks and Maritime History
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HomeWallace Nomination

Shipwreck Robert Wallace National Register of Historic Places Nomination

updated 12/19/08
Our fourth nomination is well along now and will be completed in 2009 with the field work being completed in 2007 and 2008.  This is the nomination of the Minnesota shipwreck Robert Wallace.  The Robert Wallace was discovered in 2006 in 240 ft of water near the shipping lanes off the Minnesota North Shore.  The project is being funded in part by the Coastal Zone Management Act, by NOAA’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, in conjunction with Minnesota’s Lake Superior Coastal Program.  The work will proceed much like the previous nominations with GLSPS doing most of the field work and contracting the historical research.  The historical context writing and nomination assembly will be done by Underwater Archeologist Keith Meverden who GLSPS contracted to assist us.  The final review  will be done by the MHS SHPO archeologist David Mather who replaced Scott Anfinson in that position.  We are looking forward to working with David Mather and the Minnesota Lake Superior Coastal Program office in this and future projects.  Our goal for the near term is to do one nomination per year until the backlog of historic sites needing a nomination is cleared which may keep us busy for quite a while.

So far we have completed two preliminary dives in July 07 prior to the start of the actual grant timeline and one dive and one day of drop camera work in October 2007.   Visibility and weather has been an issue so early progress has been slow.  The visibility for the dive in October was about 6 feet and accompanied by a strong current which went all the way to the bottom at 240 ft. which was pretty unbelievable.  We have managed to get some initial video and have a preliminary sense of the site layout and artifact locations.

In August 2008 on two separate dive days we finally made it from the stern mooring to the bow and added a second mooring at the bow of the wreck in spite of 6' to 8' of visibility.   The ship is split at the bow and the sides separate from the bottom of the wreck.  We managed to video the length of the starboard gunwhale, bow, bell, and some of the wreckage around the bow.  In September on two separate dive days we used the new mooring to continue the starboard side video survey and try to navigate to the port side bow.  It took two tries to make it since the port side of the wreck is separated from the deck and initially we did not know how far it was separated from the main part of the wreck.  On September 27 we took off swimming blindly in the direction of the port side dragging a navigation line with us and arrived at the port side near the bow 70' from our tie off point.  The original beam of the ship was 35' so the combination the displacement and outward slope of the sides of the ship have added an additional 35' of separation between the sides.  We managed to briefly video some of the port side bow wreckage, including the anchor windlass, looking for the wheel which we have seen on the drop camera footage but have been unable to precisely locate based on the surrounding wreckage.  We did see and photograph the ship's name on the port side and establish the general location and orientation of the port side of the hull, which will make the accuracy of the site sketch much better.

Establishing these shipwreck sites as historically significant sites helps protect them from potential claimants and those who would pilfer the artifacts.  It is our hope that this site with its artifacts will remain intact for divers to enjoy and study.  If you dive the site please refrain from moving artifacts since the positional information is important for future archeological studies of circumstances surrounding the sinking as well as studies of ship layout and construction.

Our thanks to  Minnesota Lake Superior Coastal Program for supporting this effort.

The following are images shot in October 2006 prior to the start of the project when the visibility was terrific for this part of the lake.
 

The Robert Wallace Name on the Fantail.

Bob Olson circling the Wallace fantail. The stern is somewhat intact although the bow is split.

The giant towing winch on the stern of the ship.

The rail is still intact around the fantail of the ship but the stern cabins are gone.

A steam engine that drove a flat belt to, we believe, a boiler room blower -- at least that is our preliminary guess as to its function.

Wallace Bell still attached to a rail. You can see the spindled post in the upper left corner of the image. It appears the currents have carved a clay pedistal around the bottom of the bell.

Bob Olson hovers above the galley stove which is now perched on top of the low pressure cylinder of the Wallace's steam engine.