Flat Wreck

In April 2008, Clive Cussler joined Ralph Wilbanks and his NUMA team on
Lake Michigan for his very first day surveying on Lake Michigan in search of
the wreckage of a DC-4 Northwest Airlines Flight 2501. NUMA and MSRA had been partnering to locate the plane wreck for the prior four search seasons.

Within just a few hours of Cussler's first day on the lake, the team found a
target. While not the airplane they had been searching for, the target
appeared to be a significant sized shipwreck. About an hour later they found a second target, smaller than the first, but also a shipwreck of
unidentified type.

It seems Clive Cussler has the golden touch. Within a month, MSRA's dive team explored the wreck, which is in 170 feet of water. The wreck appears to be nearly completely buried in the silty bottom. Only about one foot of a flat deck is visible above the sand. Only about an eight-foot section of the starboard hull near the bow sits upright.

There is no machinery or loose artifacts on the site and no indications to help identify the type of vessel it is. The lack of equipment suggests it was scuttled, however at nearly 18 miles off shore, it is quite far off to have been economically scuttled.

MSRA considered that it might be a section of the Joseph P. Farnan, since this wreck site is just a quarter mile from the Farnan wreck site, however both wrecks have indication of the starboard rail, so it is thought they could not be from the same ship.

The wreckage measures only 60 feet long and roughly 16 feet wide. The side scan however suggests the wreck is about 130 feet long. MSRA has not probed to determine whether more of the wreck is buried. At the present, MSRA has not been able to determine the identity of this vessel. As such, it is being referred to as the "flat wreck."

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