Kickstarter

Mount Desert Island has a long maritime history, from the native fishermen, French explorers, American trade ships, pleasure yachts, and lobster boats. Most of these ships made it to their destination safely, but many met a different fate in the stormy waters of the Gulf of Maine. The ships that did not make it have left a lasting legacy and mystery.  I hope to answer these questions by finding some of these wrecks and see what they can tell us.

I have been diving all around MDI for 5 years now, and while I have explored several wreck sites, I have never explored them in depth.  These wrecks are where I will start this project, which include an old fishing boat, the Northern Miner, off of Frenchboro, boilers from the old steam yacht Ara off of Little Duck Island, a large anchor off of Mount Desert Rock, and old anchors and ship parts found at several off the Porcupine Islands.   This project will also include wrecks that I have not yet explored, including a schooner wreck on Long Ledge and one of the old cog railway engines that used to go up Cadillac Mountain that now rest at the bottom of Eagle Lake.

An integral part of the project will be finding accounts of shipwrecks off the coast of MDI that can be found with SCUBA.  I have made trips to the National Archives as well as looking at historical local news paper.  I have also been talking to the staff at the Mount Desert historical society to find photos and more details about wrecks.  

Because the tides around MDI are some of the strongest in the country, most shipwrecks have been washed away by the current, making them more difficult to locate.  While finding a wreck site that can be identified may be a challenge, this is where research and exploration will work together to connect the past and present.  Not all of the wrecks will need SCUBA either – there are several wrecks on the island that can be found at low tide, and I will explore these sites when the sea is too rough for diving. 

I will have a gallery show in the Dorr Museum of Natural History on the College of the Atlantic campus displaying photography and maps, in June 2011.  In addition to the show, I will produce a booklet with the same photos, maps, and a write up of the whole process to put in the College of the Atlantic library.    The show will consist of a series of 11x14 framed prints and brief descriptions of the wreck sites.  The booklet will contain all the research I have done as well as photos I have taken and will be published by the college.

Any help with covering the expense of acquiring underwater photography gear, maintaining scuba equipment, air fills and fuel cost will go a long way to seeing this project finished on time.  Thank you very much for looking at this project, you can keep posted on progress through my blog as well.

http://faolanphotography.weebly.com/blog.html

Thanks again

Zach