Fiberglass Motorboat
Built: Unknown
Length: Approximately 35 feet
Lost: Unknown
Discovery: May 7, 2005, by NUMA/MSRA
Location: Southwest of South Haven, Michigan
Depth: 170 feet
DISCOVERY
On May 7, 2005, side-scan sonar operator Ralph Wilbanks located a small shipwreck while searching for the wreckage of Northwest Airlines Flight 2501.
The discovery immediately raised the possibility that the wreck might be the Sea Mar III, a 32-foot Trojan yacht that had disappeared in September 1980 with four people aboard. The Sea Mar III had remained the subject of an extensive search and a subsequent legal battle involving the families of those who disappeared.
MSRA arranged a technical dive the following day to determine the identity of the wreck. Technical divers Jeff Vos and Bob Underhill descended to the site while Holland attorney John L. “Jack” Coté who had represented the families of Sea Mar II victims in a lawsuit against Trojan, accompanied the expedition aboard his vessel. His presence made the dive particularly significant. If the wreck proved to be the Sea Mar III, the discovery could potentially provide answers for families who had waited nearly 25 years for evidence of what had happened.
THE WRECK
After descending to the wreck, Vos and Underhill examined the vessel and compared its characteristics with those known for the missing Sea Mar III. Approximately 20 minutes later, Vos returned to the surface with the answer: the wreck was not the Sea Mar III.
Instead, the divers had found an unidentified fiberglass pleasure craft approximately 35 feet long. Its condition indicated that it had been deliberately stripped of valuable equipment before being sunk.