Multimedia Digital Presentations about
Great Lakes Shipwrecks!
Cris
Kohl and Joan Forsberg have made more than 1,200 presentations
about Great Lakes shipwrecks to a wide variety of audiences ranging from local historical societies, grade school classes,
and boy scout troops to library audiences, yacht clubs, scuba dive clubs, and large, annual shipwreck and scuba shows, across
the Great Lakes in both Canada and the United States.
Thousands of people have delighted in their intense research, strong visuals, and powerful narrations.
Each presentation, allowing time for an introduction to
each topic, the presentation itself, and a question-and-answer period afterwards, takes about one hour.
Call today to book a presentation by these two well-known Great Lakes Maritime Historians -- (630)
293-8996 (email: SeawolfRex@aol.com)
The main presentations are:
Shipwreck
Tales of the Great Lakes
The most
dramatic, yet TRUE, stories of Great Lakes shipwrecks tinged with murder, mystery, deception, and more than the usual amount
of mayhem, plus exceptional underwater photography, will keep the audience on the edge of their seats. Tales include the
story of the fabled Griffon, lost with all hands on her
maiden voyage in 1679, and the many attempts to locate this shipwrecks; the captain who murdered his crew and sank his ship;
the captain who kept his shipwreck survival a secret; the shipwreck which helped build Chicago; the world-infamous Australian
Convict Ship sunk in the Great Lakes; plus more!
This presentation is based on Cris Kohl's book of the same title.
TITANIC, The
Great Lakes Connections
In April,
1912, on the maiden voyage of Titanic, the world's largest
and most luxurious passenger ship, 345 of the 1,343 passengers were bound for the Great Lakes region. Some were returning
to their homes; others hoped to settle in a new land. Some survived the world's most famous sinking; others never reached
their goals. This presentation tells many of their stories, plus tales of Titanic's Great Lakes counterpart ship, artists with strong Titanic-Great Lakes connections, the Great Lakes writer who predicted Titanic's loss 14 years earlier, and consequences to Great Lakes shipping because of Titanic's sinking -- such as the dreadful loss of over 800 lives in the Chicago River when
the excursion steamer named the Eastland capsized on July
24, 1915. Find out all the connections!
This presentation
is based upon Cris Kohl's book of the same title.
Shipwrecks at Death's Door
"Shipwrecks" and "death" go hand-in-hand, even more dramatically
so when they occurred at a place called Death's Door, the most treacherous passageway between Lake Michigan and Green Bay.
Dive to the historic wrecks of the schooner E. R. Williams
and Fleetwing, and to the notorious Pilot Island shipwrecks.
Thrill to exciting underwater explorations of the steamer, Frank
O'Connor, and the 1869 wreck of the scow-schooner, Ocean
Wave, and enjoy tales of lost shipwrecks awaiting discovery. Learn about many of the area's lighthouses, as well as
the legend of the Poverty Island treasure, and much more!
This presentation is based upon the book of the same title written by Cris Kohl and Joan Forsberg.
Tales
of Great Lakes Shipwreck Pairs
There are
times when TWO shipwrecks make for ONE fascinating story, even though they sank years or miles apart. The steamer, Myron, and her faithful towbarge, the Miztec, sank in the same place in Lake Superior --
two years apart! The two halves of the steel freighter, Manola,
lie in separate lakes hundreds of miles from one another! The freighters, Regina and Charles S. Price, sank with all
hands miles apart from each other in a 1913 Lake Huron storm, yet Price
bodies were found wearing Regina lifejackets! Hear these
exciting stories and see these shipwreck sites as they appear today!
This presentation is based on Cris Kohl's two-volume set of books title The 100 Best Great Lakes Shipwrecks.
The Shipwrecked Whalebacks
This presentation relates the dramatic, often tragic, tales of those whalebacks which became shipwrecks
in various parts of the world, focusing upon the eight which lie wrecked in the Great Lakes. The whaleback, a unique Great
Lakes design of bulk cargo ship, resembling a pig-nosed semi-submarine, or a long, curved, steel whale, was designed in the
1880's at Duluth, on the shores of Lake Superior. A total of 43 pure whalebacks were constructed over a ten-year period, some
of which remained in Great Lakes service, but many of which became workhorses in saltwater locations. Aging whalebacks were
scrapped (with the glowing exception of the one which remains as a museum ship), but several were lost at sea. Enjoy the tales
of these unusual ships!
Great Lakes Shipwrecks
of the World Wars
Although
the Great Lakes, in the heart of North America, did not see any direct military engagements with our enemies during the two
World Wars, the freshwater seas made enormous contributions to help win those wars. There were also several war-related shipwrecks
in the Great Lakes during those years. How did a ship taken for use in World War One become a shipwreck in two of the Great
Lakes? How did a World War One German U-boat end up on the bottom of Lake Michigan off Chicago? How could two ships carrying
war supplies sink on the same night in 1944 at opposite ends of Lake Erie? These questions, plus many more, are answered in
this dramatic presentation about a surprisingly overlooked topic.
Deep Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes
The cold fresh waters of the Great Lakes hold the best preserved
shipwrecks in the world, but the ones in the most pristine condition often lie in deeper water. This in-depth look at some
of these deep shipwrecks includes Lake Erie's Oxford, an early vessel lost in an 1856 collision, lying in 164 feet of water.
Lake Michigan's tragic Christmas Tree Ship, the schooner, Rouse
Simmons, sank with all hands in deep water in 1912. Lake Superior's Whitefish Point offers several deep shipwrecks,
including the wooden steamers Samuel Mather, John M. Osborne,
and the Vienna. In Lake Huron divers will find the two halves
of the steel freighter, the Daniel J. Morrell, tragically
lost in 1966 with only one survivor, plus the amazing Cornelia
B. Windiate, a stunningly preserved schooner lost with all hands in 1875. Plus more!
Call today to book a presentation by
these two well-known Maritime Historians:
Telephone:
(630) 293-8996
Email:
SeawolfRex@aol.com
