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The Morrell Survey: Finale
By Roland Schultz |
The first dive to the deck of the Morrell took place in late evening. The time of day made no difference in 220 feet of water, as it was just as dark on the wreck then as if it were high noon. All dives were done solo, with a ready diver suited on deck in the event of an emergency. Communication between diver, his tender and a Coast Guard Marine Inspection Officer was by intercom, received in a tinny voice that produced a dialect that took a certain amount of exposure to in order to develop an ear for.
Armed with a black and white TV camera mounted to a mercury vapor lamp for illumination, the diver set down port side, abeam the stern deckhouse, in visibility limited to 10 to 12 feet. From this position, he worked his way forward, until coming to a small mountain of mud approximately 7 feet high running athwart ships, the entire beam of the ship, and halting any further advance. Initially this deposit was confusing, until it was determined that it was a result of the aft section of the ship gouging into the lake bottom after plowing into it at a near vertical attitude. Having appreciably settled in the mud with a heading of 320 degrees true, her aft section had a slight trim by the forward end.
The starboard lifeboat would be found still suspended (upside down) and covered in its davits. The port boat would never be recovered and no indication of either side's davits revealed any attempt to be launched. The cargo hatches and coalbunker were found open with hatch covers strewn about. Many of the hatch clamps were broken.
Because of the depth and water temperature, bottom time for each dive was limited to approximately 15 minutes. Two decompression stages would occur before surfacing, and terminate with a visit to a one-man decompression chamber.
Observing a diver being assisted in shedding his suit and led to a decompression chamber welded to the deck of a ship whose hatch was manually bolted into place to be alone for several hours in the mist of a snow storm on the middle of Lake Huron seemed tantamount to being placed in solitary confinement at Alcatraz. Well paid they may have been, but they obviously lacked membership in a union.
Two sections of the Morrell's hull were removed for metallurgical analysis to be conducted by the Battelle Memorial Institute, of Columbus Ohio. One was the starboard deck stringer, the other a large section of starboard sheerstrake in the area of frame No. 107, which is believed to have been the location of the initial midship area of fracture.
The findings of the Marine Board of Investigation, released in March of 1968, concluded: The cause of the structural failure was a combination of factors that produced successive brittle fractures. These factors were high loads due to extremely heavy weather conditions, a notch sensitive steel, water temperature of 33 degrees that was below the nil ductility temperature of the steel, chemical and physical properties, as well as microstructure of steel composition typical of ship plate steel used prior to 1948, having a corrosion level of less than two percent. The vessel may have broached and sustained the crack while attempting to regain her heading into the sea. This being predicated upon the fact that a 600 foot vessel at an angle of 30 degrees to the seas, having crests 250 to 300 feet apart, (such as the sea and wind conditions present on 29 November) will suffer severe hogging, sagging and twisting stresses. Of the 22 bodies recovered, 13 drowned and nine died from exposure.
Seventeen years later, during the month of November, a larger and more modern laker would disappear on Lake Superior. Although occurring in an age of modern and improved technologies in communications, charting, weather forecasting and navigation, she too disappeared in a manner that would leave many of the same questions regarding the fate of her final moments unanswered to this day.
It is interesting to note that the Titanic sank in 12,500 feet of water, and after breaking into two basic sections on the surface, came to rest approximately 2,000 feet distant from one another. The Morrell broke up and sank in 220 feet of water, with her two sections coming to rest nearly five miles apart.
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to view a video taken by several sport divers who had recently returned to the aft section of the Morrell using SCUBA equipment. With the technical advances over the last several decades by usage of tri-mixes (Oxygen, Nitrogen & Helium), free divers have now been able to reach depths that were never thought obtainable.
A brief section of their video showed a diver beside a suspended red nun buoy still standing watch anchored to the bottom of Lake Huron with a chain trailing off from its upper section. For me the mystery of the missing Morrell wreck buoy had been solved. Through further investigation and conversation with one of the actual divers, it was revealed that the end of the chain was attached to a fractured black can buoy, and that it most likely was the result of damage by ice.
Chief Bos'ns Mate Robert Lucas's 5,000-pound cement sinker was found in the after most cargo hold.
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