There's a chance I'll begin working on my scuba certification within the next few years. I know the matter of one's interest is subjective, but are submerged shipwrecks a thing I should post pictures and stories about after diving them? Or is it in another realm outside of UE? I've seen pics of people who explore shipwrecks, but only beached ones.

I'd say that as long as a place is cool, manmade and (preferably) abandoned, then it definitely counts as UE.

Awesome to hear. Lake Michigan itself has as many as 1500 shipwrecks, so if I do end up doing it there's essentially a lifetime supply down there just a few hours away. Along with other sunken stuff who knows whats down there. Plus, I'll almost always have the option to find some history up about the wreck. But then again, there's a reason why they sank, and I'm not going to be immune to that. But a "life without risks is not worth living."

Posted by Thecurious There's a chance I'll begin working on my scuba certification within the next few years. I know the matter of one's interest is subjective, but are submerged shipwrecks a thing I should post pictures and stories about after diving them? Or is it in another realm outside of UE? I've seen pics of people who explore shipwrecks, but only beached ones.

Sounds like an interesting explore concept that I would be interested in seeing

Posted by Thecurious There's a chance I'll begin working on my scuba certification within the next few years. I know the matter of one's interest is subjective, but are submerged shipwrecks a thing I should post pictures and stories about after diving them? Or is it in another realm outside of UE? I've seen pics of people who explore shipwrecks, but only beached ones.

Wreck diving!!!

When I was younger I was in love with diving. I worked my way up to Padi Divemaster in the mid 1980s and spent many years diving around the world. I badly wanted to train up to a technical wreck diver. An ugly divorce ended that dream.

I would suggest that you train up to the level of Rescue Diver at a minimum. I would add Nitrox and Wreck Diver to your skills. Ultimately if you want to get really serious about overhead diving, you will need to go the technical diver route. By the time you need to make that decision, you will be a well seasoned diver.

Abby

I just talked to my dad about this. He said he was certified for Nitrox and Overhead I believe. I can't seem to find exact information about age requirements though. Websites say it's a minimum of age 18 for overhead, which I am younger than, but then there is no info beyond age 15 when it comes to open water, which I'm older than. Seems to be a gray area between 15-18 years old.

I haven't even begun to work on my certification. How long would it take from being base level certified to becoming a qualification for diving in wrecks?

Posted by Thecurious Lake Michigan itself has as many as 1500 shipwrecks

I don't dive myself, but I know at least one explorer who dives (Brind?) has mentioned that there are some laws and regs surrounding diving wrecks in the Great Lakes. Mostly surrounding artifact removal and overall disturbance of the sites since these are in some cases "final resting places" and should be given the respect they are due.

A quick search on Google reveals that the consequences of violating the various state/province and federal laws on both sides of the border are much steeper than you would think.

TL;DR - Check local laws. Look but no touch.

I've done a bit of snorkeling around shipwrecks in Lake Michigan and can confirm that as long as you don't dive at spots where people died then your fine.

Posted by z0th I don't dive myself, but I know at least one explorer who dives (Brind?) has mentioned that there are some laws and regs surrounding diving wrecks in the Great Lakes. Mostly surrounding artifact removal and overall disturbance of the sites since these are in some cases "final resting places" and should be given the respect they are due. A quick search on Google reveals that the consequences of violating the various state/province and federal laws on both sides of the border are much steeper than you would think. TL;DR - Check local laws. Look but no touch.

Thanks for letting me know about him. Checked out some of his posts and it is pretty damn cool to see what future me could somewhat be doing. Even if there were deaths on the ship I think there are still plenty of ways to get access just by being respectful without disturbing the site per se. Not really sure what counts as "disturbing", but I'll of course look into it.

This also made me think of "Old Whitey" which is the still existing corpse of a crewman that has been saponified where all his fats have leeched out of his body and he is essentially soap. The SS Kamloops, the ship he is in, sunk in 1927 in Lake Superior off the coast of Isle Royale, so it's pretty interesting that his corpse is still floating around down there, all because the bottom of Lake Superior stays near freezing year round and there isn't much life to begin proper decomposition.

Posted by Thecurious This also made me think of "Old Whitey" which is the still existing corpse of a crewman that has been saponified where all his fats have leeched out of his body and he is essentially soap.

I never knew about Saponification until this. Learn something new every day !

It is indeed a pretty interesting phenomenon I didn't know of before hearing of Old Whitey. Writing the post I actually had to research it, as I was going to say "soapified" which is easier to understand but isn't the real proper word.

Further, if you're curious about Old Whitey, there's a few pictures of him(but it doesn't really look much like a person anymore). Plus apparently there's another similar corpse in the ship which isn't known well. People used to think the ship was haunted as the currents divers would generate caused the corpse to mindlessly follow them around the ship slowly. Apparently Old Whitey also had a gold wedding ring still on his finger, but apparently some freaky dickhead snatched it off the finger of a nearly century year old body. Pretty morbid but also fascinating at the same time to know that under the right conditions your body can just quite literally become soap.

Here's some footage of the SS Kamloops and a short clip where you can see him:
https://youtu.be/j...i=10wp0dNbYVecDyzp
he's visible around the 2 minute mark if you're interested

From what I read a while back about saponification, it is most common in anoxic and cold environments, and I am pretty sure it is due to fats being decomposed anaerobically. I might be wrong on this so don't take my word for it.

Posted by Thecurious It is indeed a pretty interesting phenomenon I didn't know of before hearing of Old Whitey. Writing the post I actually had to research it, as I was going to say "soapified" which is easier to understand but isn't the real proper word. Further, if you're curious about Old Whitey, there's a few pictures of him(but it doesn't really look much like a person anymore). Plus apparently there's another similar corpse in the ship which isn't known well. People used to think the ship was haunted as the currents divers would generate caused the corpse to mindlessly follow them around the ship slowly. Apparently Old Whitey also had a gold wedding ring still on his finger, but apparently some freaky dickhead snatched it off the finger of a nearly century year old body. Pretty morbid but also fascinating at the same time to know that under the right conditions your body can just quite literally become soap. Here's some footage of the SS Kamloops and a short clip where you can see him: https://youtu.be/j...i=10wp0dNbYVecDyzp he's visible around the 2 minute mark if you're interested

Wow! That was very interesting. I cannot believe the Lifesavers candy, some with wrappers still shiny and vibrant. They were definitely larger rolls back then LOL.

As far as Whitey, that is so diabolically disgusting that someone would rob a dead man's finger of his wedding band !!

Also, if the currents caused a corpse to appear to be drifting in my direction, honestly, that would freak me right out and I would likely die of fright on the spot...ultimately becoming soap with them

Thanks for sharing as this was very interesting.

Post by Wowee From what I read a while back about saponification, it is most common in anoxic and cold environments, and I am pretty sure it is due to fats being decomposed anaerobically. I might be wrong on this so don't take my word for it.

Yes, you are correct, from what I researched about saponification and not having heard about this phenomenon until yesterday.