Jon Paul’s Maritime Diaries

On the bow of the Cleo Frank Hoffman (center of divers) discusses the dive plan with Dr. Richard Boyd (left) and Jack Raymond (right). Bob Holmstead (far right) is between dives. Photo from the Bernard Bloom Collection, taken in the summer of 1969.

Jon Paul’s Maritime Diaries

The summer of 1969 has always been a bittersweet memory of mine. I was 11 years old when my mother and father both had surgeries at the same time. One of my brothers was in Vietnam and another was off serving in the Army state side. But in the later part of July, everything changed. Both of my parents were released from the hospital, my brother came home from Vietnam unexpectedly, and on July 20th the family gathered together to watch the first moonwalk. All was good. That whole summer the local news would report nightly of the progress of the raising of the “Mystery Ship” (a name given to her by television newsman Al Sampson), a old sailing vessel sunk in 119 feet of water, north of Chambers Island. Just nine days after the first moonwalk, on July 29th the Mystery Ship was raised intact and was floating on the Menominee River. The summer of 1969 seemed like the summer of discovery and anything was possible.

The story actually begins in November of 1967 when Dick Garbowski, a commercial fisherman from Menominee, called Frank Hoffman about having a very expensive fishnet tangled in something on the bottom of Green Bay. Frank at the time owned a hotel and bar in Egg Harbor but was an avid diver and accepted the job of freeing the net. He could not find anyone to help so the initial dive Frank took upon himself. It was a cold, dark, dangerous dive and in the process Frank lost one of his dive knives. His light went out but he did learn the net was entangled in the mast of a sailing vessel and would require additional divers to complete the task. The rest of the weekends in November of 1967 were spent removing as much of the net as possible before the season ended. What they did discover is that the net was entangled on the bow and foremast of an old sailing vessel at least 100 years old. The ship was remarkably intact with the cabin, wheel and many artifacts just as when she went to the bottom. That winter Frank would gain salvage rights from the Army Corp. of Engineers; he now owned one ship on the bottom of Lake Michigan.

Cleo’s Barge with the enclosure to keep the divers warm. Photo from the Bernard Bloom Collection.

The rest of the winter, plans were made about what to do next with their find. The possibility of raising the ship was discussed and so dive equipment was repaired and altered to meet with the demands of this new daunting task. Spring came early and diving began the first week in April, it would take several weekends to complete the task of removing the last of the fish net, but during that time they would see more of the ship and it was looking more like their goal of raising her intact was feasible. The main problem was that the ship was filled almost to deck level with silt. The crew started making different pumping equipment to extract the vessel. By the end of the summer they had burnt up three small pumps and had not yet even cleaned the small cabin, and a larger pump would be needed to pump the remaining 60 tons of silt from the hold. Frank purchased a used five-inch Army surplus pump from the town of Egg Harbor fire department which would do the job nicely, but now he had the problem that his two small boats were overloaded with dive gear and other equipment.

Frank met with Harold Derusha of Marinette Marine Corporation who was impressed with the idea of raising the ship. Frank showed Harold the underwater footage that Gail Millard had taken of the vessel while documenting the recovery of the ship. He was impressed and offered the use of their Cleo’s Barge, a 56-foot LCM-6 military landing craft. This new vessel would be able to carry all of their equipment and provide an excellent work platform for the project. One of the divers, Bob Holmstead, located a newspaper article in the July 7, 1864 issue of the Green Bay Advocate that mentioned the Alvin Clark was lost on June 29th near Chambers Island. Could this be the Mystery Ship they were working on? The wreck was measured and came to 113 feet in length – the same as the Clark’s.

The foremast, with the crow’s nest still attached, is lifted onto the barge a week before the final lift. Photo from the Bernard Bloom Collection.

The plan was to bore holes under the ship for lifting cables and then to lift the vessel underneath a barge and tow her to Menominee were the final lift would take place. Six holes were bored under the ship by the use of a special head for the pump and then cables passed under. The rest of fall of 1968 was spent pumping silt from the hold of the vessel and it was evident that the ship would have to wait until the following summer to be raised.

That winter Frank began collecting materials that would be needed for the lift the following summer. Up to this point he had been financing the project by himself, but was running out of money and had financed his hotel to the limit. Harold Derusha would appoint his son, Jim, to oversee Marinette Marine’s part in the project and agreed to help with the final lift expense and the divers’ salaries.

The early part of the summer of 1969 would be spent pumping the final silt from the hold and policing the area around the wreck for artifacts that may have fallen overboard during her sinking. Time for the lift was nearing, but first the masts would have to be removed. This was accomplished on July 15th with the help of Gallagher Marine Construction Company, who donated the use of their barge and crane. The two masts were then taken to Marinette Marine awaiting the arrival of their owner.

The lift would start on July 22nd with the lift barge being set in a four-point mooring over the wreck. It would require 2,800 feet of lifting cable to raise the wreck, and with this in place the raise would begin on July 23rd. Twelve men worked in four-man shifts at the hand winches that would require 100 turns to raise the vessel just five inches. By Friday the 25th the ship was under the barge and heading for Marinette for the final lift. It took four more days at Marinette to complete pumping and make the final hookups for the lift and on July 29th, the two cranes were in place and 15,000 people showed up for the Clark to break the surface. The ship floated on its own, and even the divers who had endured more than 3,000 dives on her had never before seen the ship in its entirety. The ship again saw the light of day for the first time in over 105 years. Her masts would be reset and she would join the annual blessing of the fleet on Sunday.