Ships were the order of today. Marine historian Pat Labadie shared the evolution of Great Lakes ships with us, from wooden sail schooners to wooden, iron, and steel steam bulk carriers, ever-increasing in size and carrying capacity. Wayne Lusardee, Russ Green, and Cathy Green traced the evolution of underwater archaelogy through hand-drawn outlines to sophisticated electronic and video mapping. We learned that shipwrecks occur in the context of economics, meteorology, shoreline features, bottom, and currents. Most ships have been lost as boats tried to make just one more trip before the winter season.

Time to cast off!
Dockside, Captain Luke provided an orientation about the Sea Cadet program prior to our boarding the training and research vessel, the Pride of Michigan. Roseanne Fortner outlined an onboard investigative lesson about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Testing multiple hypotheses with a variety of variables, our groups surmised several possibilities, illustrating that while science may not always provide us with definitive conclusions it may provide thoughtful explanations. We anticipated our inwater excursion ahead!

Enroute
Underway, Sea Cadets manned the ship, escorted us on tours of the ship, and answered our many questions on the way out to the Monohansett. We worked on projects along the way. Some of us simply got tuckered out.

Go jump in a lake!
A highlight for many of us was the opportunity to snorkel at the Monohansett wreck site.

The Monohansett
The wreck site, as with so many others in the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, was remarkably preserved, due to the cold freshwater. The timbers of this 100-year-old wreck were quite sound. Since this ship burned to the waterline, what remained were the keel, boiler, and propeller.

Science on a Sphere
The evening had us admiring the Science on a Sphere exhibit, an amazing array of programs projected onto a globe to convey aspects of our planet and other spheres in our solar system.