along, my good friend Michel the Frogman among them. He planned to test modifications he’d made to his Mark-15 rebreather over the winter. Bad weather kept dive boats at their docks so Michel and two friends made a shallow shore dive off the lighthouse at Big Tub Harbour. They entered the water together before heading off on their separate ways to sort out their gear. Then tragedy struck. Later it was determined Michel fell unconscious from hypoxia. By the time his dive buddies discovered him it was too late. Despite the rapid response and valiant efforts of Tobermory’s emergency services, Michel could not be revived.
after our descent, team members Richard and Wayne made their first dive on Hamilton. Visibility was at least as bad during this second dive but both divers felt they were lucky to have found the wreck at all. Poor weather conditions and scheduling conflicts conspired to keep us off the lake for the remainder of the season. In the summer of 2001 we were back. The group completed six more dives on Hamilton without significant incident. Visibility that season was dramatically better than in 2000, averaging 20 feet (6m) plus. We filmed the entire wreck in detail
in what was at the time production quality video. Importantly, we had done so without being discovered.
Death of a Diver Our dives on the Hamilton completed we now focused on diving the Scourge in the summer of 2002. As spring arrived a group of my friends headed for the Trail’s End Lodge at Tobermory, an annual Victoria Day long-weekend ‘kick- off the dive season’ get together that, regrettably, I missed due to work obligations. Members of the Hamilton and Scourge team went
1813 August 8 Hamilton and Scourge founder in storm and sink at the western end of Lake Ontario. 1971 Dan Nelson, an associate archaeologist with the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) initiates search for Hamilton and Scourge. 1973 The wrecks are located by a vessel from the Canadian Centre for Inland Waters (CCIW) using side-scan sonar. 1975 Hamilton is photographed by an ROV from the CCIW. 1976 Hamilton and Scourge are declared a Canadian National Historic Site. 1978 Hamilton photographed again by CCIW ROV. 1980 The City of Hamilton seeks and is granted title to both wrecks by the U.S. Navy via the Royal Ontario Museum. Jacques Cousteau dives the wrecks in Calypso’s diving saucer Soucoup. Cousteau team and MAREX-Group divers are the only humans to observe the wrecks in situ. 1982 National Geographic conducts the first photo survey of the wrecks using an ROV, later publishing a story by Dan Nelson. 1990 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) expedition headed by Robert Ballard and archaeologist Margaret Rule, who oversaw recovery of the Mary Rose, conduct what likely remains the most extensive survey ever of the wrecks. She recommends recovery of all loose artefacts from the wrecks before environmental damage is too great. Recommendations are not acted upon. 1999 Gary Gentile launches a suit against the City of Hamilton for
Clockwise from top: Dive time
tables. Zodiac and safety diver Todd
Ziegler. Lord
Nelson lit up. A starboardside carronade on Hamilton
We were a team, but mostly we were a group of friends who dived together and we were devastated by the loss. Without Michel, no one wanted to carry on, to dive the Scourge that summer. It seemed our project had come to an untimely end. But as July was coming to a close I came to the realization that Michel would have been unhappy with our decision to quit. And the others were feeling the same way so we pulled ourselves together and faced the hard truth that we’d need to find a replacement diver. He was Ray Stewart, a friend who had recently become trimix certified. By the time we got good weather on Saturday, August 17, 2002, we were ready to dive. For the first dive I partnered up with Richard Hertz. Both of us were going to be carrying video cameras
HAMILTON AND SCOURGE IMPORTANT DATES
permission to dive the wrecks denied by both the municipality and the MTCS. 2000-2002 MAREX-Group divers complete 10 scuba dives on the wrecks, eight on Hamilton, two on Scourge. Production quality video shot on every dive given to city officials. 2002 – May 18 Michel ‘Frogman’ Guerin of the MAREX-Group dies in a diving accident at Tobermory, Ontario. The project is temporarily suspended and later completed that year. 2004 and 2005 Sonar surveys conducted of the wrecks. 2005 Amendments to the Ontario Heritage Act prescribes 2,500- foot (750m) no-go zone around Hamilton and Scourge. 2007-09 Parks Canada in cooperation with other agencies conduct extensive condition surveys with ROV. 2010 YAP Productions in cooperation with ASI Group shoot video of the wrecks using ROV for an episode of Dive Detectives. 2013 June 14-21 side-scan sonar and magnetometer survey conducted on both wreck sites for the primary purpose of defining debris fields around both vessels. June 22-November 10 ‘Sunken Sunset’ exhibition of red and gold side-scan sonar images of the wrecks (currently) running at the Art Gallery of Hamilton. August 8 Bicentennial of the sinking of Hamilton and Scourge. September 4 Memorial service for the lost sailors of Hamilton and Scourge conducted over the wreck site from the Canadian Coast Guard vessel Griffon.
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