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ENLARGE
MY TURN
David C. Henley
Publisher Emeritus
More than 3 million shipwrecks are lying on the floors of the world's oceans, lakes and rivers, according to a United Nations report, and when I read last week of the discovery of a 600 year-old sailing ship found on the bottom of Lake Constance in Germany, I recalled Nevada's most famous ship loss that occurred 69 years ago on Lake Tahoe.
It was on Aug. 29, 1940, when the 169-foot SS Tahoe, a luxurious steamship driven by two wood-fired engines each attached to a three-bladed propeller, sank upright in 460 feet of water off Glenbrook.
Unlike the Lake Constance sinking, however, the Tahoe's demise was premeditated and purposeful.
From 1901 until its sinking 39 years later, the SS Tahoe carried passengers, freight and mail on a daily circuit of a dozen Lake Tahoe communities. But when an auto road was constructed around the lake in 1926 and the ship lost its mail contract in the mid-1930s, the Tahoe's revenues declined and it was eventually laid up at a pier in Tahoe City.
In late August 1940, ship owner William L. Bliss, the son of lumber king Duane L. Bliss who launched the Tahoe in 1896, ordered that it be scuttled and sunk rather than have it meet the humiliating fate of being broken up and turned into scrap.
Seven years ago, I was present at Glenbrook when a team of divers began preparations to descend to the wreck and film the historic steamer where it rests on the lake bottom. Unfortunately, the dive was postponed because of mechanical problems in the divers' submersible vehicle.
I returned to Fallon empty-handed but learned that the dive was successfully completed the following day. Several more dives were made and the dive crew made an exciting video of the ship that shows its exterior, portholes, air vents, wheel house and cabins. The video may be accessed on the Internet.
Today, the wreck of the SS Tahoe is the first maritime site in Nevada listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and it, as well as other underwater treasures, is protected by state and federal laws against looting, vandalism and unauthorized diving.
Underwater sites in Southern Nevada also share these protections, and the wreckage of an Air Force B-29 bomber that crashed and sank in Lake Mead in 1948 with no loss of life is included among the sunken ships protected by law.
Because of new underwater diving, recovery and filming technologies, the discoveries of scores of other sunken ships once thought lost forever are becoming commonplace.
Just last month, for example, the wreckage of two 400 foot-long Japanese Navy submarines scuttled by the U.S. Navy after World War II were discovered lying in 3,000 feet of water not far from Pearl Harbor, and a video of the discovery was the subject of a recent National Geographic Channel special titled “Hunt for the Samurai Subs.”
Also discovered recently was the wreck of the HMS Victory, a British warship carrying a crew of 900 and 100 brass cannons that sank during a storm in the English Channel in 1744. This ship is not to be confused with the second ship of the same name, now a maritime museum in England, that served as Admiral Horatio Nelson's flagship during the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar.
Two other ancient ships have been found the past two months as well … a Dutch cargo ship that sank in the 17th century in the Baltic Sea and a 19th century Russian freighter that went down in the Black Sea.
Last week, the wreckage of the 310-foot AHS Centaur, an Australian Navy hospital ship, was discovered by a government dive team lying submerged in deep waters off Brisbane, Australia.
Hit by a torpedo fired by a Japanese submarine in 1943, the Centaur sank in 20 minutes. Only 64 of the 322 doctors, nurses, other medical personnel and crewmembers survived. The ship had been en route to New Guinea to pick up wounded Australian soldiers and return them to hospitals in Sydney.
The survivors, who spent 36 hours on life rafts and wreckage battling sharks and bad weather, were rescued by the U.S. destroyer USS Mugford.
The unforgiving sea bears the graves of uncounted numbers of ships, and I will continue this shipwreck report, that will include the dramatic story of a Nevada-assigned U.S. Army general who perished in a California wreck in 1865 in my Jan. 8 column.
David C. Henley is publisher emeritus of the LVN.
It was on Aug. 29, 1940, when the 169-foot SS Tahoe, a luxurious steamship driven by two wood-fired engines each attached to a three-bladed propeller, sank upright in 460 feet of water off Glenbrook.
Unlike the Lake Constance sinking, however, the Tahoe's demise was premeditated and purposeful.
From 1901 until its sinking 39 years later, the SS Tahoe carried passengers, freight and mail on a daily circuit of a dozen Lake Tahoe communities. But when an auto road was constructed around the lake in 1926 and the ship lost its mail contract in the mid-1930s, the Tahoe's revenues declined and it was eventually laid up at a pier in Tahoe City.
In late August 1940, ship owner William L. Bliss, the son of lumber king Duane L. Bliss who launched the Tahoe in 1896, ordered that it be scuttled and sunk rather than have it meet the humiliating fate of being broken up and turned into scrap.
Seven years ago, I was present at Glenbrook when a team of divers began preparations to descend to the wreck and film the historic steamer where it rests on the lake bottom. Unfortunately, the dive was postponed because of mechanical problems in the divers' submersible vehicle.
I returned to Fallon empty-handed but learned that the dive was successfully completed the following day. Several more dives were made and the dive crew made an exciting video of the ship that shows its exterior, portholes, air vents, wheel house and cabins. The video may be accessed on the Internet.
Today, the wreck of the SS Tahoe is the first maritime site in Nevada listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and it, as well as other underwater treasures, is protected by state and federal laws against looting, vandalism and unauthorized diving.
Underwater sites in Southern Nevada also share these protections, and the wreckage of an Air Force B-29 bomber that crashed and sank in Lake Mead in 1948 with no loss of life is included among the sunken ships protected by law.
Because of new underwater diving, recovery and filming technologies, the discoveries of scores of other sunken ships once thought lost forever are becoming commonplace.
Just last month, for example, the wreckage of two 400 foot-long Japanese Navy submarines scuttled by the U.S. Navy after World War II were discovered lying in 3,000 feet of water not far from Pearl Harbor, and a video of the discovery was the subject of a recent National Geographic Channel special titled “Hunt for the Samurai Subs.”
Also discovered recently was the wreck of the HMS Victory, a British warship carrying a crew of 900 and 100 brass cannons that sank during a storm in the English Channel in 1744. This ship is not to be confused with the second ship of the same name, now a maritime museum in England, that served as Admiral Horatio Nelson's flagship during the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar.
Two other ancient ships have been found the past two months as well … a Dutch cargo ship that sank in the 17th century in the Baltic Sea and a 19th century Russian freighter that went down in the Black Sea.
Last week, the wreckage of the 310-foot AHS Centaur, an Australian Navy hospital ship, was discovered by a government dive team lying submerged in deep waters off Brisbane, Australia.
Hit by a torpedo fired by a Japanese submarine in 1943, the Centaur sank in 20 minutes. Only 64 of the 322 doctors, nurses, other medical personnel and crewmembers survived. The ship had been en route to New Guinea to pick up wounded Australian soldiers and return them to hospitals in Sydney.
The survivors, who spent 36 hours on life rafts and wreckage battling sharks and bad weather, were rescued by the U.S. destroyer USS Mugford.
The unforgiving sea bears the graves of uncounted numbers of ships, and I will continue this shipwreck report, that will include the dramatic story of a Nevada-assigned U.S. Army general who perished in a California wreck in 1865 in my Jan. 8 column.
David C. Henley is publisher emeritus of the LVN.
