Buoying mission to protect wrecks

PORT WASHINGTON - In one of the first tangible signs of the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, the Coast Guard vessel Spar spent several days last week off Port Washington placing mooring buoys at three area shipwrecks.

The buoys were placed at the sites of the Niagara, Northerner and Mahoning, Russ Green, superintendent of the sanctuary, said Monday.

It’s all part of a two-week project expected to wrap up this week that will place mooring buoys at the sites of 19 shipwrecks in the sanctuary, which runs from Port to Two Rivers, he said.

The 225-foot-long Spar, a Coast Guard buoy tender, is being used to do the work in a partnership between the sanctuary and the Coast Guard, Green noted.

The buoys will allow divers to tie their boats up near the shipwrecks instead of anchoring on the wrecks, Green said.

“It will not only prevent damage from the anchors but help guide divers (to the sites),” he said.

Bill Moren, a Port resident who is a member of the shipwreck advisory council, reiterated that sentiment.

“It’s an important thing to do,” he said. “It’s one little step to make the sanctuary more of a treasure and ensure the shipwrecks are preserved.”

Green noted that the 19 wrecks where buoys will be placed are primarily in water that’s between 50 and 300 feet deep.

The Port area wrecks, he said, are generally popular sites for divers.

One of the biggest draws locally is the Niagara, he said. It’s a 225-foot wooden sidewheel steamer that burned to the waterline north of Port on Sept. 24, 1956, killing 60 people.

The wreck lies broken in 55 feet of water, but her engine, boilers, walking beam and paddle are extant.

The Northerner, an 81-foot two-masted schooner, worked the lumber trade until she foundered in a storm southeast of Port on Nov. 29, 1868.  She lies in 135 feet of water off what was then Port Ulao — an area near Lions Den Gorge Nature Preserve in the Town of Grafton.

The Mahoning, a 119-foot brig, was lost seriously damaged in a gale on Nov. 4, 1864, and sank while being towed for repairs on Dec. 2, 1864.

The boat is in 55 feet of water southeast of Port, near Port Ulao.

The mooring buoys are not the only tangible things done since the sanctuary was designated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2021.

Moren noted that the sanctuary has mapped the underwater surface of the entire sanctuary.

And, he said, later this month it will bring the research vessel Neeskay from the School of Freshwater Sciences in Milwaukee to the sanctuary for two days of hands-on experiments.

One day will be devoted to working with high school and middle school educators, Moren said, and the other to working with students.

“We want to get as many people as we can involved so that whole experience becomes not abstract but real,” he said.

“Here are your future marine scientists.”