Ken Merryman
Underwater Videographer, Charter Captain, A GLSPS Founder
Ken Merryman is a retired computer engineer and founding member, past president, and current board member of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society. He is a veteran speaker at shipwreck shows including Gales of November and Ghost Ships, and gives several shipwreck talks each year. Ken has been an avid Lake Superior shipwreck diver for over 40 years and operated a scuba diving charter service for 40 years. Although his charter business operated mostly at Isle Royale National Park, he also frequents the Lake Superior North Shore, the Apostle Islands, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron to dive and search for new shipwrecks
Understanding Great Lakes Sailing Shipwrecks - Lunch & Learn Seminar
Resting on the bottom of the Great Lakes is a large number of truly great examples of the sailing ships that plied the lakes in the late 1800’s. A surprising number sit upright with masts still standing and remnants of their rigging and machinery intact. Often we as divers miss some of the most interesting parts of these shipwrecks because we haven’t learned how the structure and machinery of the ships were used in the everyday sailing operation. Enjoy some exceptional underwater video, as well as topside examples of sailing on the Dennis Sullivan as Ken tours six of these underwater museums, using examples from each wreck, animations, historic photos, and real life sailing scenarios to help in the interpretation of the structures you are seeing. Using animation he will start with the hull structure and add rigging and machinery explaining basic terminology and how each piece of the shipwreck you are seeing functioned when the ship was afloat. You will never look at a shipwreck the same way again.
