The RACHEL CARSON SCUBA PARK is intended as a scuba training facility that is designed to provide ample bottom time for divers the work. Shaped like a hexagon, the crashed torpedo bomber, mentioned above, is at the center of the the six-sided park. The six points located around the bomber will include and archaeological test site, a water quality visibility range, a couple of fish habitat test sites and several sunken boats.
The current SCUBA PARK mission involves the repositioning of donated concrete pilings. One of the reasons that the torpedo bomber has suffered is because the local dive boats have inadvertently hit it with their anchors. A much better system would be to create an anchoring system visiting dive boats could use without colliding with the sunken artifacts positioned in the park. Several tests have been conducted which involve raising the heavy concrete pilings just a foot above the lake bed by using the surface of the water as the limiting factor involving as determining the extent of the lift.
Check out the official SCUBA PARK map and instructions, including its location, in the following graphic as it was submitted to the Department of Natural Resources.
The latest improvement in the technical capabilty of THE RACHEL CARSON SCUBA CORPS is our brand-new drop camera system. One of the major problems in working in the SCUBA PARK is our inability to see what is in the park. Various technologies are used to find things. GPS systems and LORAN-C navigating equipment is used to find the park. Then side scanning sonar, when it is available, has been used to show the location of the pilings relative to the position of the torpedo bomber at the center of the park. What the SCUBA CORPS builders needed was a system to optically explore the park. It is tested and ready to explore the park!
Inspired by Robert Ballard's quest to explore the HMS TITANIC and James Cameron's movie of the same name, the SCUBA CORPS drop camera uses a security video system that integrates four video screen's into one view-screen. In one quarter of the screen is the optical view of the lake bottom. The next quarter will show the position of the search craft from a computer running Delorme mapping program. The third quarter will show a view of the bow of the the search boat which will be helpful in showing ranges and the fourth quarter of the presentation screen will show depth information. Using this system, a videotape record of the searches will be created and shown at the monthly meetings of THE RACHEL CARSON SCUBA CORPS.
The new equipment was accompanied by the next generation of SCUBA CORPS drop cameras as shown in the center of the picture below. The drop camera system, shown at its debut at the December 2004 meeting of the the SCUBA CORPS, is guarenteed to create a great deal of underwater excitement at our monthly meetings at Skype Telephone Web page on the Internet. Join us!
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Dive Lake Michigan
Who was Rachel Carson?
The
Rachel Carson Scuba Park offers an easy dive for beginners and
experienced
divers alike. The main attraction of the park is a World War II
era TBF
Avenger Torpedo Bomber that crashed in the lake during a training
mission
in 1943. (Photo at left shows the cockpit; see below for engine
photo). The pilot, who was
attempting to
land on
either the Wolverine or the Sable, missed the flight deck and
belly-flopped
into the lake. He was rescued, but his plane sank in 40 feet of
water about
a mile and half northeast of the 68th Street pumping crib. Sad to say, there isn't much left of the airplane to see. In spite of our attempts, many self-serving divers who care about nothing except grabbing souvenirs have stripped it so there's almost nothing left except the cockpit frame. Unfortunately, there isn't much left of the plane. Most of what you see in this photo has been stolen by greedy divers, even though this aircraft is still property of the United States Navy.