On September 24, 1867, the two masted schooner SWEEPSTAKES was launched at Wellington Square, Ontario, by William Bunten and John Waldie.  A large number of spectators witnessed this fine vessel taking to the water.  She was valued at $12,000 and measured 124 feet in length, 24.5 feet in beam and 8 feet 4 inches in hold.

While loaded with coal, the SWEEPSTAKES was damaged off Cove Island in August 1885.  Although damaged, she was towed to the head of Big Tub Harbour off Tobermory, Ontario.  Repairs were not made in time and she sunk there in September.

The SWEEPSTAKES is now a popular dive at the Fathom Five National Marine Park.  Cal Kothrade, our Shipwreck Ambassador, shares his adventure on the SWEEPSTAKES.

I’ve been lucky enough to dive the wreck of the SWEEPSTAKES twice, each time as an end of the day exercise in fun. When I’m in Tobermory, Ontario, I’m there to dive, but mostly wrecks that lie deeper than twenty feet.  I’m not saying a diver can’t have a great time at snorkel depth, but divers like to start out with the deepest dives of the day first, and work toward the shallowest last.  By 4:00 in the afternoon when the wreck is officially open to divers, my tanks are all pretty low on air from other dives in and near the Fathom Five Marine Park, some as deep as 150 ft. 

The SWEEPSTAKES is the perfect way to finish off the dive day as the 20 ft. depth will not cause any decompression issues, and affords us a way to use the tanks with little gas left in them without fear of running out on a deeper dive.  When a tank runs out of breathing gas, it is not an instantaneous thing, it happens over the course of as much as thirty seconds, and you can feel it becoming more difficult to coax the remainder out of the cylinder. At this depth it may even be more than thirty seconds, I’m not sure, I don’t actually drain my tanks to full empty unless they are going to be visually inspected.  At any rate, 30 seconds is plenty of time to ascend the 15 ft. to the surface when on a non-penetration dive.

As for the wreck itself, the old schooner is in pretty good condition, some have even touted it as being one of the best preserved wrecks of its type…I disagree with that statement.  I have personally seen many others in better condition, but it might be one of the best in such shallow waters however, which is very important to the local economy.

 One boastful statement that can be made about the SWEEPSTAKES that I can stand behind, is that it is one of the most photographed shipwrecks in all of the Great Lakes.  Not by divers, but by tourists!  Each summer thousands of landlubbers board glass bottom tour boats in Tobermory’s harbor and take the ten minute ride around the point and up the channel to the head of Big Tub Harbor where the nineteenth century sailing ship sits peacefully on the sandy bottom, right where she sank in 1885.  All of these shipwreck hungry vacationers stand ready with their cameras, and when the boat nears the wreck, the usually flat calm, crystal clear water will reveal the maritime jewel in all her sunken glory.  Great images can be captured simply by standing on the deck of the tour boat and aiming one’s camera at the water’s surface.  Even clearer views can be glimpsed by peering through the glass ports in the bottom of the boat, taking away all surface glare and refraction.  This is why the SWEEPSTAKES may very well be the most photographed wreck in the Lakes.

 Tours stop at Four in the afternoon, allowing divers a safe window to become even more intimate with the wreck without the worry of whirling props and boat hulls over their heads. 

Years ago the cargo hatches in the main deck were a simple way of accessing the interior of the hull for divers so inclined to enter the overhead space, but due to cumulative damage from our bubbles, the Marine Park has installed heavy wire cages to prevent access to the under deck areas. 

I have always enjoyed making photos on the SWEEPSTAKES.  Being confined in such a small and shallow body of water means the surface is usually calm, which aids greatly in the art of taking split shots, or what UW photogs call over/unders.  It is a photograph where half the lens is looking underwater, and the other half is looking above the surface.  They make for great photos when done right, but are not nearly as easy to pull off as one might think.  The main issue is the placement of the water line, too high and you won’t see anything above, too low across the dome port and you miss all the underwater goodies.  The line needs to be just about in the middle. 

The camera then has issues with focus due to the different distances of subject matter above and below the waves.  Then there is the physical difficulty of holding the camera in exactly the right spot long enough to get the image.  My camera rig weighs about one pound underwater, just enough to hang on its tether below me and out of my way when I’m not holding it.  Out of water though, the camera weighs over twenty pounds, and it’s very long outstretched strobe arms make it want to fall forward onto its face.  Holding twenty pounds out of the water when you yourself are floating at the surface is a true feat of buoyancy control. 

All these issues are enough of a challenge when in calm water, but in rough seas, getting the image I see in my mind’s eye is more akin to playing the lottery, an exercise in taking many images and hoping I get lucky.  AKA the ‘spray and pray’ method.

 In the past I have spent as much as five minutes on the surface and taken sixty or more images trying to get the ‘one’ when conditions are poor.  The end result of a successful capture though is worth every bit of struggle.  These split shots are extremely difficult to fake in photoshop, and one experienced in these matters can usually tell if it is not a bonafide over/under, and conversely, more often than not the untrained eye will assume that because the shot is so unreal, it must be a product of post production magic.  Lots of natural light on the wreck and often times expressive clouds in the sky will round out an already epic photo.

Ironically, one of my favorite photos of the SWEEPSTAKES is not even mine.  It is a picture of me diving the wreck taken by the very man who floats in literally hundreds of my UW photos, my long time dive partner and friend Steven Wimer II.  The framed photo was gifted to me for Christmas sometime after one of our Toby trips, and I cherish it for it’s beautiful simplicity… just me, my camera, and a historic wooden sailing ship on the bottom of the clearest Great Lake.  It proves that I have experienced true serenity. 

These images were taken with a Canon 6D full frame DSLR mated to a Canon 16-35mm wide angle lens, in an Ikelite housing using natural light and Ikelite DS -161 photo strobes X2.  Post production was performed in Adobe Lightroom.

Photos by Cal Kothrade

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Cal Kothrade is the Shipwreck Ambassador of the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society, a diver, a photographer and an artist.  His work can be viewed at www.calsworld.net and a wall of his photos are on display at Milwaukee’s Riverfront Pizzeria.