Tamara Thomsen: Everyone asks me, “What’s your favorite shipwreck?” And it’s always the next one that we’re working on.
Daniel: Tamara Thomsen’s got a fabulous job. She’s a maritime archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society, and she investigates newly discovered shipwrecks on the bottoms of the Great Lakes—specifically, the two that border Wisconsin, Lake Superior and Lake Michigan.
Thomsen: I have been working on a shipwreck that was just discovered this summer, which is called the F.J. King.
Daniel: Researchers and citizen scientists led the search.
Thomsen: They wanted to see if they could locate the remains of the vessel, which had become practically a ghost ship. It had disappeared for nearly 140 years, despite fishermen saying where they knew it was and the lighthouse keeper reporting that it was within the shipping lane. So they put together a plan for where they were going to search. They conducted the archival research.
Daniel: And then they boarded a boat.
Thomsen: They were out there for maybe less than two years, and this shipwreck that had not been found despite a lot of searches being made for it, they saw it crawl across the screen of their sonar. They reported that to our office. And then we put a small team together to go look at it. We try to do what’s called a photogrammetry model. So we put a diver down with a scooter, a diver-propulsion vehicle, with a GoPro on the front and lights. And then he goes back and forth over the shipwreck and photographs it at multiple angles for about 25 or 30 minutes.
Daniel: Wow.
Thomsen: And then that goes into a program where I can create a 3D model. When my buddy and I were down there, we tried to get diagnostic information to be able to positively identify the ship, look for any kind of culture items, things that were left by the crew, any remnants of the cargo, and try to do an assessment for listing to the National Register of Historic Places. It’s a great honor for shipwrecks, but it also enacts other parts of the law which protect the shipwreck.
Daniel: So out of the depths, you find these remarkable ships from the past that have been hidden from view for decades?
Thomsen: Yeah. It’s pretty amazing that somebody pays me to do this job. It’s very exciting, and I feel very privileged. But to correct that a little bit, we don’t look for shipwrecks. Our office is still in a backlog situation. We’ve been around since 1988. That’s when the state founded our program. And we’re still trying to catch up with all the shipwrecks that have been discovered.
