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This is the story about a fantastic ship built in 1897 that sunk
in 1911 in Lake Superior in Canada. I was fortunate to get in
contact with diver and archeologist Scott McWilliam. Scott took
time to introduce me to this fantastic wreck lying at 80
meters. He dived it in his early diving career on air (!) and
finished his adventure with a survey in 1993. In the 30's a
search was carried out and hard-hat divers tried to find the
wreck.. The story will take you all the way from the beginning
to the End, an amazing story! I would like to give my warmest
regards to Scott who wrote me this story and I also want to
thank Fred Broennle for his amazing adventures and hope he will
be able to read this story! |
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| Gunilda New York Yacht Club was
owned by oil baron William Harkness, she was a 59,4 meter
vessel. |
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History
Ramage & Ferguson Ltd., Scotland, built the Gunilda in Leith, in
1897 according to the plans of designers Cox & King.
Her overall length was 195 feet (59.4 meters), her breadth was
24 feet, 7 inches (6.25 meters) and she had a draft of 12 feet,
six inches (3.8 meters) with a gross of 385 tonnes. The Gunilda
was powered by a triple expansion 27-inch (68.6 centimetres)
stroke steam engine fuelled by two 160 pound pressure turbine
boilers and could make 14 knots per hour.
At the time of her demise the Gunilda was owned by an affluent
New Yorker by the name of
William L. Harkness.
The great lakes are not known for their forgiving nature and all
too often frugal or ill-informed decisions result in disaster.
Harkness chose not hire a local pilot to guide his ship through
the various islands and shoals of this part of the lake.
After hitting some rocks, all the prestigious passengers where
safely brought to shore, leaving their personal belongings in
their respective rooms.
Harkness refused to pay for a second Tug and the Gunilda sank at
the base of the pinnacle, in 270 feet (80 meters) of water. The
date: August 11th 1911.
Divers were not able to find any trace of the Gunilda 1904 or
1905 and Lloyds of London paid out on a $100, 00.00 policy.
The family valued the total loss at $132, 00.00. |
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| William Lamon
Harkness |
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Location: |
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Old map of McGarvy Shoal |
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Wreck location shown on current map |
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Modern video: |
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| Great movie on Vimeo
http://vimeo.com/16215539 thanks to Brian Nadwidny |
| Best movie to
see National Film Board of Canada
"Drowning in Dreams" (you should try to buy a copy!) |
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Gunilda, written
by Scott McWilliam |
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The Gunilda was never forgotten
about. It sank during a salvage effort. Hard had diver Ed “Doc”
Fowler made an effort to locate the vessel in the 1930s but
failed.
My father Keith McWilliam and I would go fishing with Doc. He
was retired by then and he told story of his life time as a
commercial diver on the Great lakes. |
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| Ed Doc Fowler and
Scott's father |
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| Pump men Doc
Fowler |
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| Ed Flatt on barge.
He had retired and planned to raise the Gunilda by winching it
to the surface. To that end, he had purchased a barge from
the railroad. Both Ed Flatt and Ray Kenny were long time Rossport residents and knew how to find Gunilda.
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| Jack Coughlan
scuba diver,
he was the first SCUBA diver to look for Gunilda. He tied 150’
rope around his waist, dropped down and got narked and called it
a day. |
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Other diving efforts to reach Gunilda were made. Chuck Zender
was the first diver to reach Gunilda using SCUBA in 1967.
He published a couple of magazine articles and suggested that
$3,500,000 in valuables was on Gunilda, highly speculative.
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In the 70’s there was one diver
who had the bug for rebreather diving like no one else.
Fred Bronelle formed a company, Deep Diving Systems to engage in
Raising the Shipwreck Gunilda . . . |
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| Porpose PP1
rebreather more information
here |
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| Deep Diving Systems built the
tethered submersible Constructor, with an operational depth of
3,000 feet and a lock out capability to 1,500 feet. |
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In August 1970 Fred Bronelle and his dive partner Charles King
Hague went out to dive Gunilda. August 8, 1970 King did not
return from a dive.
His body was recovered seven years later. |
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| Charles King
Hague (front) died in 1970 diving Gunilda |
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| Charles King
Hague before his last dive.. |
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Fred then set up Deep Diving
Systems his principal goal was to set up a marine contracting
firm and raise the Gunilda.
He built several wet bells, purchased barges, cranes and
purchased a Biomarine CCR 1000 rebreather and set out to dive
Gunilda.
His first dives did not go well.
The umbilical that carried hot water to the suit had been coiled
and he spun around in the water like a penny worlie gig.
Fred used the CCR 1000 for his first dives and decompressed in
the wet bell. He wore a hot water suit. |
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| Wet Bell over
Gunilda |
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| A38)Fred Bronelle
diving Gunilda |
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| Tender removes Freds CCR 1000 after the dive |
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| On the next dive they taped a
rope to the hose and this took care of the spin problem and Fred
made it to the upper part of the masts and rigging and brought
back a piece of 15/16th fibre core wire rope. |
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| Fred in hot
water suit |
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Fred’s next dive was eventful.
The equipment worked properly and he toured the wreck.
The main deck is at a depth of 250’. He was overwhelmed at the
site of Gunilda.
It had taken a great deal of time and effort to get on Gunilda
and he was happy to be there.
He affixed a down line to the stern mast. He was so happy to be
on the wreck he removed the rebreather mouth piece and kissed
the stern mast. Unfortunately neglecting to close the diver
shutoff valve for the exercise, he half flooded the CCR 1000.
He then grabbed one of the large Brass grates that covered one
of the skylights and made his way to the wet bell and survived
the dive. |
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| Fred dressing
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| Flooding the rebreather ended
diving operations on Gunilda. |
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| Fred's barge
over Gunilda |
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Fred’s Gunilda dives met with
mixed reviews. Many were duly impressed by the accomplishment.
Mixed gas diving, and mixed gas rebreather diving were uncommon
to that part of the world.
The Ministry of Labour did not take well to it and Fred had to
upgrade and grow the business to if he planned to return to
Gunilda.
He continued to grow the business. These are shots of the Deep
Diving Systems facility in Thunder Bay. |
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| Fred in his FOB
shirt, the name of his company formed after DDS |
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| a grate from
Gunilda in daylight again |
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| Brass Grate |
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| DDS from the air |
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| DDS diver in
conventional commercial gear |
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Infrastructure photographs:
In the interior of Deep Diving Systems office Fred had a spar
and running light
He usually had three secretaries and they were all beautiful
women |
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| Fred's office |
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| Interior of his
office |
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| Fred's staff |
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Deep Diving Systems continued to
build diving equipment wet bells. Given the depth of the Gunilda
around
245' to 255 down at the bow, on the main deck, and the ability to
establish a highly secure four point mooring system. To that end
a giant piton with a four in head was hammered into heart of the McGarvy Shoal.
By nature, I never bother to look into another man’s business. I
have no specific knowledge of investments or partnership
arrangements outside my own. This was with KaBro marine long
after Deep Diving Systems had fallen into receivership.
Fred then came up with a dry submarine, the Ugly~Tugly. The sub
was small had a coning tower, the pilot sat over
an observer lying prone. The prone diver had excellent observation lying stomach down and
they were or had plans to fit an Ibeck pan and tilt camera
system. They attended a trade fair held at the Port Arthur fair grounds.
Fred took the sub and went to a trade fair on the gulf coast.
He got a really good look at state of the art off shore
commercial diving bells and Deep Diving equipment.
He told me he was disheartened and realised he was not even in
the game. The Ugly~Tugly was alleged to have a problem with the
welds.
The wrong type of electrode was allegedly used. A contractual
problem resulted with the welder. |
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Through his purchase of
his personal CCR 1000
he met Mr Gerard.
Mr Gerard was one of three partners that had formed Innerspace.
For a time Innerspace and Deep Diving Systems entered into a
partnership arrangement.
Innerspace had developed the PP1 system. A modified General
Aquadyne hat mated to the CCR1000 rebreather. This solved one of
Fred’s problems.
The hat allowed the diver to switch to open circuit and as he
was dragging a hot water hose he moved into a conventional
umbilical. |
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| John Gerard, one
of the Innerspace principals |
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| Fred Bronelle in
PP1 |
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The most ambitious undertaking
was Constructor. This was a dry bell that could be operated with
three occupants to a depth of 3,000’.
It could be used as a bell and lock out two PP1 equipped divers
to a depth of 1500 feet.
Many of the divers at Deep Diving Systems wanted to lift Gunilda
but the company choose to wait for the completion of
Constructor.
As far as dive bells go it was the Cadillac. You entered through
the bottom hatch.
Three PPI systems were installed directly overhead and hats on
the seat. |
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The master plan was to build a
dive ship with saturations system around Constructor.
The situation was highly competitive. I remember Fred from an
Aqua Y SCBA club meeting.
He had taken a course a year or so ahead of me from NAUI
instructors Doug Elsey and Charles King Hague.
It is funny to reflect on, but Fred had difficulty with
decompression tables and required additional lessons to finish
the course.
As Fred went on in life so did his surviving instructor Doug
Elsey.
Doug became an oceanneering student and one of the seven
principal partners in Can Dive the largest commercial diving
company in Canada. Doug's region was the Great Lakes Saint
Lawrence River and things were competitive. Doug attended with a
Can Dive presence a submarine and a diver a Rat hat. On the west
coast Can Dive partner Phil Newton was developing the Newtsuit.
Investment dried up. Deep air wreck divers began to dive the
site and early Tec dives on trimix were done by Gerry Buchanan.
Mr. Buchanan made the observation that the safe door in the
chart room appeared to be open.
When Deep Diving Systems lost support of financial backer the
Constructor was sold to Can Dive and in Phil Newton’s hands.
The manipulators were used on other devices and Phil used it for
a pressure test tank for years.
It was eventually sold to the Australian navy to be used with a
dive ship for submarine rescue. |
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| Doug Elsy tender
dressing Can Diver in Rat hat |
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| Newtsuit by
Phil Nuytten |
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| Constructor |
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| Variable pitch
propeller of the Constructor |
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| Constructor |
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| Constructor
submerging |
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Constructor in
more detail |
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| Recompression
chamber operated for Fred by Scott McWilliam. |
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| Scott operating
the chamber in the 80's |
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| Beaver Submarine
of Can Dive |
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| DDS Diver training
tank |
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| Sea scanner,
The lost diver in the next pictures is King Hague and was found
with the Ibex Camera system. They built Sea Scanner but removed
the camera system and had it in a slightly different
configuration when King was found. Fred had though that King
would be found inside the wreck but was found close to the wreck
on the Port side near the stern chain plate. |
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| Lost Diver |
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| Another sad
picture of a lost diver on the wreck, found seven years after
his last dive. |
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| Scott McWilliam &
Don Curran decompressing |
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| Scott McWilliam
today with his CCR 1000 rebreather. If you have any questions
left please feel free to send emails to
jw.bech@quicknet.nl and
smcwilliam@xplornet.ca |
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So far about
Gunilda, again Scott thank you for all the work and also for
scanning all these old pictures. I am sure many people in the
diving community will like these great pictures!! |
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Do you have additional
information about the Gunilda, about the diving systems please
send me an email @jw.bech@quicknet.nl |
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published
22-12-2012 |
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Gunilda’s
cracked dinner bell,
A.K.A. William Lamon Harkness’ cracked bell.
Another fine Gunilda McWilliam bell story. I had a note from
DandyDon on ScubaBoard.com and took a dive into the deep dark
and murky waters of eBay to acquire a dinner bell that was used
on the Gunilda. The bell is large and
loud. It is seven inches in diameter at the lip and stands
eleven inches tall and weighs 1lb. 1.35 oz. (75mm diameter, 80mm
tall, 1399 grams). It had to be loud enough to be heard in all
parts of the ship, and as the vessel had a steam engine and
boiler room this was the bell they picked for the job. It could
also be used for fire or general alarm purposes.
In all contemporary North American published accounts of the
Gunilda, including my own, only about a third of the Gunilda
story is told. This bell travelled the world. The family that
owned the vessel first were in the textile business. The Gunilda
was used the same way a large company would use a corporate jet.
It had travelled to Finland, Norway, Russia, the USA and
Venezuela before being sold American in 1904.
The bell is also cracked. During the time the vessel was owned
by William Lamon Harkness and birthed in New York the bell was
taken out of service but it was a curiosity and it was not
thrown away or melted down. William Lamon Harkness was a
philanthropist and made several large donations to Yale
University, I think there may still be a building there with his
name on it. There is also a Harkness or was museum and the bell
may have been there but it may not have been in the collection.
The bell was in storage for a time and ended up being sent to
the museum. It ended up out of collection and was finally
acquired by the vendor I purchase it from at an estate sale.
Given Harkness’ personal involvement in the loss of the Gunilda
it may have been in poor taste to have Mr. Harkness’ cracked
bell from the Gunilda a ship that was lost due to poor decision
making around as an exhibit.
The bell is adorned with the finest of masking tape labels and a
hand written not that reads, "Dinner Bell Used on Harkness
Yacht."
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| Update 12
October 2013 |
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| Update 25 April 2014 |
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Dear JW,
I read with
interest your article on the site http://www.therebreathersite.nl/ and
your collaboration with an archeologist (Scott) to write this
story. This is also what decided me to write directly to you.
A few years ago
(I am French but I used to live in the US for some time), I
found a photoalbum in a flea market in NYC that was left among
many other photo albums from different years.... and decided to
buy it as the seller did not really care about it... intrigued
by the name on the cover (Gunilda in gildered letters) as well
as the high quality, freshness and "spontaneity" of its images
which it no so common in the beginning of the twentieth century
(it seems this album probably belonged to the Harkness family or
at least very close friends as it spans almost over a decade of
cruises abroad this ship in places such as
Martinique/Caribbean's, the East Coast and of course the Great
Lakes... and these people had enough money to take snapshots the
same way lets' say, we are today using digital cameras in a
way).
Looking on the
internet, I discovered the fabulous (and tragic) destiny of this
ship and the importance of these pictures for the historians. I
was finally able to scan them and put them on the internet and
thought that it was important to share them, especially on an
archeological and historical point of view.
So if you are
interested, you go can go to the
www.gunilda.fr adress to
look at them (by clicking on the picture on the first page). The
gallery may take some time to load as I did not take the time
yet to optimize the size of the pictures for the web.
Hope you enjoy
Best Regards,
Rémi Frayssinet
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| Thanks Remi for this fantastic photoalbum!! |
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