Walter Lewis took up diving in 1990 specifically to dive on the wreck of the CORNWALL. At Shipwrecks ‘95, he did a presentation on the wreck, which was subsequently the subject of The River Palace, co-authored with Rick Neilson and published by Dundurn Press in 2008. In the following year, he and Rick were awarded the S.O.S. Marine Heritage Award. In 2011 Walter was named Great Lakes Historian of the Year, an award presented by the Marine Historical Society of Detroit. He is known to many in the Great Lakes community for the website he manages, which presents the raw materials of history, gathered through the work of many researchers, particularly those interested in shipwrecks. He is a frequent speaker on a wide range of topics related to the history of the Great Lakes.
Web Site: www.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca
Early Steam Wrecks on the Great Lakes
This presentation will feature a range of steam vessels that pioneered service on the Great Lakes, all of them built before the American Civil War. Some were lost early in their careers; some survived into the twentieth century.
Some are among the most interesting dive sites on the lakes. A handful left the Lakes and met their ends in other waters. Some are still hiding in the depths of the Lakes.
