Show

Let’s welcome a new presenter to our show. Corey Adkins isn’t new to shipwrecks or presentations, just to our show.

Come check him out on February 24th in Livonia, MI.

Content/Communications Director from the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, Corey Adkins, will be presenting 3 mini documentaries on recent shipwreck discoveries in Lake Superior. 1st up will be “Lost in the Site of Salvation: The Shipwreck Atlanta. The 2nd will be on one of our finds last summer, the Huronton, this will be a film festival debut. And the third is going to be another debut and a surprise of another shipwreck found in the summer of 2023 that has an incredible story you won’t want to miss.

Kevin Magee has been a long time attendee and presenter at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival TM. This year, Cindy LaRosa is presenting with him about the shipwrecks and Fjords of Norway. Come check them out on Saturday February 24th in Livonia.

While not considered a normal diving destination, Norway is a cold-water location that offers spectacular scenery above and below water. Its glacially carved fjords form a maze of channels that penetrate deep into the majestic granite landscape. Nestled within these fjords are many Norwegian and German shipwrecks from World War II to modern times, covered in anemones and featuring the history of the region. Above water are quaint towns and historic cities that pay homage to Norway’s maritime heritage from the Vikings to modern Arctic and Antarctic exploration.

Kevin was certified for scuba in 1984. He moved to the Cleveland, OH, area in 1993 and discovered shipwreck diving in the Great Lakes shortly afterwards. He enthusiastically practices diving shipwrecks in Lake Erie as well as the other Great Lakes. He was trimix certified in 1999 and has visited many of the pristine deep-water wrecks that technical diving allows. In 2001 he co-founded the Cleveland Underwater Explorers (CLUE), which has found over 35 shipwrecks in Lake Erie. Kevin is a member of the National Museum of the Great Lakes (NMGL), Maritime Archaeological Survey Team (MAST), Lake Erie Wreck Divers (LEWD), and Bay Area Divers (BAD).

Cindy began diving the Great Lakes in the early 1990s and has over 1,000 logged dives and holds numerous dive certifications up through Advanced Nitrox. She is an Official Court Reporter for the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court and is a Registered Professional Reporter with the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA), is a Certified Reporting Instructor, and has taught court reporting theory at a local college. Cindy is a member of the Cleveland Underwater Explorers (CLUE), the National Museum of the Great Lakes (NMGL), Maritime Archaeological Survey Team (MAST), Lake Erie Wreck Divers (LEWD), and Bay Area Divers (BAD).

While not exactly new to shipwrecks, she is a new presenter here at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival TM. Come check out Stephanie’s talk about all the new discoveries in NOAA Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Stephanie Gandulla is a maritime archaeologist and the Resource Protection Coordinator for NOAA’s Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, based in Alpena, Michigan. She has participated in projects around the world including the Great Lakes, the South Pacific, Sweden, Jamaica, and the Arctic. As a NOAA Scientific Diver, she enjoys exploring and documenting the dozens of historic shipwrecks in Lake Huron’s sanctuary waters.

Discoveries in Lake Huron’s Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary

Since its designation as the first freshwater national marine sanctuary in 2000, NOAA’s Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary has worked to preserve a historically significant collection of shipwrecks through research and education, encouraging access to the rich maritime history of the Great Lakes. Collaborating with partners, this work has led to the discovery of shipwreck sites, such as the schooner barge Ironton, sunk in a collision in 1894. Join maritime archaeologist Stephanie Gandulla as she shares the Ironton’s tragic story of loss, its exciting story of discovery, and learn more about the sanctuary’s ongoing exploration of Lake Huron.

Kevin and Amy Ailes are back this year presenting together about Great Lakes ships involved in the Underground railroad.

Kevin and his wife Amy have a talent for finding history. Their investigations blending boots on the ground with old school research and a unique combination of modern technology have proven remarkably productive. With patience and perseverance, they regularly find and share nearly forgotten tidbits of history with the public.

Consistently Kevin dives with purpose. He is a technical rebreather diver who educates the public and protects shipwrecks through his positions as Presidents of both the Michigan Underwater Preserve Council and the Southwest Michigan Underwater Preserve.

Together with his wife Amy, they have discovered numerous shipwrecks and historical sites. Although she prefers to be behind the camera, Amy is an accomplished diver and President of the Michigan Underwater Divers (MUD) club who keeps their projects on course with solid planning and a Keep It Simple approach.

Nearly all known routes of the Underground Railroad throughout the Midwest were cut off by a fluid frontier. The barrier of the Great Lakes was a substantial obstacle to those seeking freedom to the north. That obstacle could only be crossed by vessels equipped for the journey, many of which now lie upon the bottom.

Just as the overland portions of the journey were built on secrecy and danger, the overwater sections floated upon subterfuge and collusion. That subterfuge over the water was so thorough that little has come to the surface today.

History teacher by winter, Sailor by summer. Storyteller all year long.

Jeff Thomas is back with us again this February 24th in Livonia.

As a local history teacher and part time Great Lakes sailor, Jeff Thomas draws on both experiences to tell the story of Great Lakes shipwrecks. He finds the small details that bring the stories to life in a story-telling experience that puts the viewer “in the moment” of these dramatic tales.

In 1915 the Eastland rolled over and sank in the Chicago River, killing more than 800 people. Her loss would devastate the immigrant community of Chicago and set off a legal drama that would captivate the Great Lakes region. After her sinking the Eastland found new life as a naval training ship where she helped win two world wars. Come learn the tragic story of the Great Lakes deadliest shipwreck and how it all happened as the ship was moored safely at her dock.

Terry Irvine is back at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival TM this year with a bit of history on “The most beautiful shipwreck in the world” according to some French guy named Jaques. I think if Cousteau were alive today, he would show up Saturday February 24th to catch this presentation.

“The Gunilda – 25 Years of Exploration”

The last 25 years have seen unprecedented technological advancement in all aspects of our life including SCUBA diving.

In 1998, the internet had existed for only five years. Pentium desktop computers had 16 MB of RAM and 6.4 GB of hard disk space. HID video dive lights and digital video were brand new technology. Helium based diving was still a relatively new science. Decompression modeling was undergoing an exciting re-evaluation.

Join Terry Irvine as he takes you on a technological journey through the last quarter century of exploring the “Gunilda” from the 1990’s to today.

Our next presenter has attended our show, but this is his first time presenting at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival TM. Come and see Chris Roxburgh in Livonia on February 24th.

Chris Roxburgh, a renowned underwater photographer and author, has gained widespread recognition for his exceptional work capturing shipwrecks in the Great Lakes region. His remarkable photography and environmental efforts have been featured on local and national news platforms multiple times. He is the author of the highly acclaimed hardcover nonfiction book “Leelanau Underwater,” which has become the top-selling book in Northern Michigan. This book vividly showcases the shipwrecks in his hometown of The Manitou Passage, situated in Leelanau County, Michigan. Chris’s impressive work has been featured in several prominent publications, including the History Channel, Outside magazine, and The Smithsonian, among others, as he continues to document shipwrecks throughout the Great Lakes region. In addition to his artistic accomplishments, he is actively working to raise awareness about the growing problem of plastics pollution in the Great Lakes, and he is a passionate advocate for preserving and protecting our precious waters.

42 years of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival TM and I don’t recall ever having a presentation on diving the St Clair river. It is one of our most accessible diving locations and is littered with wrecks going back hundreds of years. Join us in welcoming another newcomer to the show this year on February 24th in Livonia. Trevor Larson on “A Diver’s guide to the St Clair River”

Explore the wild fast moving waters, wrecks, and wildlife of the St Clair river. We will explore the history and diving of select wrecks in port Huron, as well as the diving conditions and wildlife found in what could be the Great Lakes best diving spot.

Trevor Larson, 27, of Roseville Michigan has been diving since age 11 and has been diving the St Clair river for 14 years. In 2022 I successfully completed year rounder status by diving the river every month of the year day and night. My primary passion diving is underwater wildlife photography

While he isn’t new to Great Lakes Wreck diving, he is new to presenting at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival TM. Let’s welcome Jeff Lindsay on February 24th in Livonia.

Growing up on the shores of the Great Lakes fostered a natural curiosity of the unexplored for Jeff Lindsay; learning to dive in 1990 led to a lifelong desire to visit and photograph the unknown and forgotten. With an almost limitless number of shipwrecks nearby, a natural progression into technical diving was required for the deeper and more remote locations. He’s been invited on numerous projects as team photographer around the world as well as being a keynote speaker at Diving Talks, Portugal. His biggest thrill is still visiting a shipwreck or cave and capturing some small part of its essence in a photograph.

His website: www.jefflindsay.ca

All three of these presenters have been with us before. Two of them have presented together before. Nobody ever would have imagined all three of them working together either in diving or presenting a show. Come watch history in the making February 24th at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival TM in Livonia, MI.

Dave Trotter, Chris Roth, and Michael Lynch will be presenting “Solving Huron’s mysteries.”

Every diver dreams of discovering a shipwreck. After the discovery is made, the real challenge comes in trying to identify the find and tell its final story. With the mussel invasion, in the Great Lakes, the days of finding a name on the side of the ship or an enrollment number are for the most part, a thing of the past. With deep depths and targets resting a long distance offshore, accurately documenting the sites also proves challenging. Explorers must take everything we can learn about the site and compare it to historical records that are generally over a century old and make a best guess on the identity. This can be a slow process extending over several dive seasons and sometimes we don’t always get it right the first time. Our team of divers, historians and shipwreck enthusiasts have combined resources to solve some of these mysteries and write the final chapter, in five of these ships’ histories.

Please welcome Mark Gammage back to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival TM this year. He will be speaking in room 2 at 9am on Saturday February 24th.

Mark Gammage has had a life-long interest in Great Lakes Shipwreck History. Originally certified as a diver at 17 years of age and an instructor at 23 he immediately became fascinated in shipwrecks and the stories behind them, which he could tell through underwater photography. In the past his photographs have been exhibited in venues such as Dossin’s Marine Museum, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society’s Museum at Whitefish Point and articles and photos published in periodicals such as Historical Preservation Magazine and Michigan History Magazine. Mark was also a part of a group of friends called the Odyssey Foundation who researched, located or relocated and documented previously undiscovered shipwrecks, such as the Miztec, John M. Osborn, F. B. Gardner. More recently he has renewed his passion with his long-time friend Joe Van Wagnen and they have discovered 3 new previously undiscovered shipwrecks during the seasons of 2020 and 2021. They have started a YouTube channel called “Great Lakes Shipwreck Expeditions” to share their new finds and the history they represent.

You all know him, you all love him. Ric Mixter is back at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival TM for 2024. His presentation of “Briny Depths” is sure to get everybody up and going this year. Rck goes on at 9am in room one. Come see what the fuss is about on February 24th at the Embassy Suites in Livonia, MI.

Ric Mixter has been a storyteller since he was a kid, first broadcasting professionally when he was 16. He’s worked for affiliates for CBS, NBC and ABC and currently is a multimedia producer for “Great Lakes Now” on Detroit Public TV. His documentaries have been seen by millions of viewers and he’s been awarded by the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History for over 20 years of education to the public. Ric’s podcasts on www.shipwreckpodcast.com are the first dedicated to sharing maritime history of our inland seas.Ric Mixter has been a storyteller since he was a kid, first broadcasting professionally when he was 16. He’s worked for affiliates for CBS, NBC and ABC and currently is a multimedia producer for “Great Lakes Now” on Detroit Public TV. His documentaries have been seen by millions of viewers and he’s been awarded by the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History for over 20 years of education to the public. Ric’s podcasts on www.shipwreckpodcast.com are the first dedicated to sharing maritime history of our inland seas.

Even if you don’t know him yet, you will love him. Big T is back this year speaking about a couple of more recent discoveries up in Canadian waters.

Terry Irvine was certified in 1987. He completed his cave training in 1995 and his Trimix training the following year. He completed his Closed Circuit Trimix Rebreather training in 2016.

Terry has actively documented shipwrecks and caves using video and photos since 2000. He has been an active contributor to Quest since 2001. Some of his video has been featured on the Outdoor Life Network and local media publications.

In 2016, Terry was part of an Explorer’s Club team that discovered and documented the steam locomotive CPR 694 in Lake Superior near Marathon, Ontario. Some of his photos and video were used for several newspaper articles, an article in Branchline Magazine and the documentary called “The Ties That Bind”.

In 2018, Terry was part of the diving team that documented the wreck of the Manasoo in Georgian Bay which has since been featured in Quest Magazine and Wreck Diver Magazine.

Terry has a keen passion for photographing Great Lakes shipwrecks and enjoys exploring sites in all five of the Lakes.

James Mott is an instructor for Unified Team Diving International, a training agency that is committed to building thinking divers. A veteran of the Great Lakes area diving community and PADI instructor since 1998, he started working at Don’s Dive Shop in 1991 and was a co-founder of Sea The World Scuba Center in 1996. Although he has an honest interest in all things underwater big or small, James’ heart lies beneath the cold waters of the Great Lakes along with the shipwrecks that he loves diving. Passionate about educating the diving community and sharing an underwater philosophical base, James’ instruction provides infinite possibilities and extends attainable excellence to all divers willing to reexamine their underwater behavior.

Michigan’s own pretty boy of diving returns. You may know Ol’ Jamesey as just the eye candy from The Great Dive Podcast, but there is more depth to this man. Dive in and give him a listen on February 25th.

Kevin Magee is back with us this year. Breaking trend from his normal Lake Erie wrecks, this February 25th, he is going to be speaking about Scapa Flow.

Kevin Magee was certified for scuba in 1984, moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1993, and discovered shipwreck diving in the Great Lakes shortly afterwards. He enthusiastically practices diving shipwrecks in the Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes. He was trimix certified in 1999 and has visited many of the pristine deep water wrecks that technical diving allows.

Mike Poggione has been a long time sponsor and advocate of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival TM. He will be presenting for the first time at our show on February 25th. Mike’s shop, Motor City Scuba and Snorkel will also have a booth at the show.

Mike is an active diver and instructor in the Metro-Detroit area; he has been diving for thirty years and teaching scuba diving for twenty one years. Mike owns Motor City Scuba with two locations in SE Michigan and has trained thousands of divers, he is an Instructor Trainer through TDI and SDI. When Mike is not in one of his dive stores, he is diving. He loves the Great Lakes and is happy to tell anyone that will listen just how great they are. In addition to his obsession with scuba diving he also has a degree in History and is known to give impromptu lectures to an unsuspecting audience.

The President of the Michigan Underwater Preserves Council, Kevin Ailes, returns again for 2023.

Kevin is an avid technical diver, historian, amateur archeologist, and preservationist. Consistently he dives with purpose which has brought him many historical opportunities within the Great Lakes. Through numerous interviews, articles, and photographic events he regularly inspires others to enjoy Great Lakes shipwrecks while employing low impact diving practices.

He is part of a team only completed by his wife Amy. They have assembled a unique blend of old and new technology which is proving quite effective for finding shipwrecks. Together they discovered 5 of them in 2022, 3 of which were part of the news cycle within the last year.

This is his first time presenting at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival TM. Let’s welcome Jeff Thomas to the show.

As a high school history teacher and part time Great Lakes sailor, Jeff Thomas draws on both experiences to tell the story of Great Lakes shipwrecks. He finds the small details that bring the stories to life in a story-telling experience that puts the viewer “in the moment” of these dramatic tales.

Erik Petkovic is an explorer, author, maritime historian, shipwreck researcher, and technical wreck diver. Erik is the author of multiple wreck diving and maritime history books. Erik has been featured in publications worldwide and is a consultant for various production companies. Erik regularly presents at large dive shows and museums. He is a sought after presenter due to his unique storytelling and in-depth research. He currently lives in Southern Maryland with his wife and sons. ErikPetkovic.com

Many know of him, not many have met him. This is something you can change in 2023.
Come out and see Brendon Baillod present at the show in February.

Brendon Baillod is an award winning Great Lakes maritime historian, antiquarian and diver based in Wisconsin. He has been studying Great Lakes maritime history for nearly forty years and has amassed the largest private collection of antiquarian books, maps and ephemera on the Lakes with material dating back to the 1600s. Brendon is the current president of the Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association and frequently searches for and surveys new underwater cultural sites, especially shipwrecks. Brendon is the author of Fathoms Deep but not Forgotten: Wisconsin Lost Ships, a compendium of over 200 shipwrecks in Wisconsin waters and is the author of the upcoming book Ghosts of the Oceana Coast, Pentwater, Michigan’s Shipwreck Graveyard. Brendon is a frequent consultant on shipwreck preservation and interpretation and has appeared on the National Geographic Channel, the Science Channel and the Travel Channel discussing Great Lakes shipwrecks. He is also the creator and administrator of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Research Group, a Facebook community and YouTube channel with over 5000 members and the host of the podcast Great Lakes Shipwrecks LIVE! 

A Great Lakes show wouldn’t be the same without the great Ric Mixter. Ric Mixter has been a storyteller since he was a kid, first broadcasting professionally when he was 16. He’s worked for affiliates for CBS, NBC and ABC and currently is a multimedia producer for “Great Lakes Now” on Detroit Public TV. His documentaries have been seen by millions of viewers and he’s been awarded by the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History for over 20 years of education to the public. Ric’s podcasts on www.shipwreckpodcast.com are the first dedicated to sharing maritime history of our inland seas.Ric Mixter has been a storyteller since he was a kid, first broadcasting professionally when he was 16. He’s worked for affiliates for CBS, NBC and ABC and currently is a multimedia producer for “Great Lakes Now” on Detroit Public TV. His documentaries have been seen by millions of viewers and he’s been awarded by the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History for over 20 years of education to the public. Ric’s podcasts on www.shipwreckpodcast.com are the first dedicated to sharing maritime history of our inland seas.