Icebound Found! The Ordeal of the S.S. Michigan -  50 minutes
Written and Directed by Valerie Olson van Heest/Produced by Robert Gadbois
 

This film was Van Heest's inspiration for the book "ICEBOUND! - The Adventures of Young George Sheldon and the SS Michigan."  Parents as well as children who enjoy the book may want to watch the film as well.

$19.95

"Difficulties are just things to overcome after all." This quote, made famous by Captain Ernest Shackleton when he and his crew of 27 returned from Antarctica safely six months after his ship Endurance sank, could certainly have been the sentiment of Captain Prindeville as a similar drama played out on the ice-encrusted Lake Michigan. In 1885 Prindeville and his 29-man crew on the S.S. Michigan became icebound off West Michigan during one of the worst winter storms in history. After 40 days their ship was crushed by the ice and sank, forcing them onto the ice-covered lake. With stamina and perseverance all 30 people made it safely to shore in this local tale of endurance!  It would also take endurance for the members of Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates to search for the sunken remains of this 200-foot steamer.  Working with noted shipwreck explorer, David Trotter, the team to persisted over three years and 50 square miles to finally locate the wreck in deep water off Holland, Michigan. The multifaceted tale is told through a riveting and accurate historic reenactment, an unfolding search effort punctuated with highs and lows, and the camera lens of a technical diving team, as MSRA explores the intact remains of this historic vessel, 275 beneath Lake Michigan, and learns first-hand just how difficulties can be overcome. 

A Freshwater Monsoon - 40 minutes
Written and Directed by Valerie Olson van Heest/Produced by Robert Gadbois $19.95

 
On a violently stormy November day on Lake Michigan more than a century ago, a small schooner loaded with slabs of freshly milled lumber wallowed in the trough of the huge seas as her captain and crew struggled to keep their ship afloat and their lives intact. More than a century later, Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates attempts to identify the wreck of a small schooner off Saugatuck, Michigan. Through painstaking research and several dangerous dives to this deep site, MSRA explores not only the wreck, but the lumbering industry that sustained Michigan in its early years as a State. The journey ultimately leads to a surprising conclusion when it is realized that the schooner was swallowed by...a freshwater monsoon.

She Died a Hard Death- The Sinking of the Hennepin - 40 minutes
Written and Directed by Valerie Olson van Heest/Produced by Robert Gadbois Assoc. Producer William Lafferty

   $19.95

When the tugboat Lotus moved slowly up the Grand River in Ferrysburg Michigan on the sultry evening of August 18, 1927, it was immediately apparent something was wrong. She had left the day prior towing the barge Hennepin and was returning without it. The Hennepin’s Captain Ole Hansen, who had taken refuge on the tug, shouted across to Construction Materials Corporation employees waiting at the Dock: “We lost her boys. She died a hard death.” Seventy-nine years later Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates discovered the ship that Hansen lost in 230’ of water off South Haven Michigan. Through research and diving this very pristine wreck, MSRA pieced together the true account of the sinking of this ship, told through historical reenactment, and placed this vessel in its’ proper historical content as the first self-unloading steamer, and one of the most significant vessels ever to sail the Great Lakes.

Planes Trains and Ships- The Discovery of the AA No 5-  35 min.
Written and Directed by Valerie Olson van Heest/Produced by Robert Gadbois

   $19.95

When Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates (MSRA), nationally acclaimed author Clive Cussler, and his organization the National Underwater Marine Agency (NUMA), teamed up to search for Northwest Flight 2501, a DC-4 airliner that crashed on Lake Michigan in 1950, they made a surprising discovery.  In 160 feet of water eight miles off South Haven lay the remains of a huge steel ship seemingly impaled into the lake bottom.  Two immense props flanking the rudder at the stern seemed suspended in the water column.  After several dives on the newly discovered site, MSRA was able to determine that the wreck had been a car ferry used to transport railroad cars across Lake Michigan. The problem with that conclusion was that the only car ferry used in that region of the lake had been cut up and scrapped after outliving its’ usefulness.  No other car ferries were reported lost in that vicinity.  Just how this vessel, the Ann Arbor No 5, ended up embedded on the lake bottom of after ferrying rail cars across Lake Michigan for six decades proved as much a mystery as the plane crash itself.  Join MSRA as they dive the wreck, revisit the magnificent history of railroad car ferry service on the Great Lakes, and ultimately meet the man who was on the Ann Arbor No 5 when it sank!

The Disappearance of Flight 2501 -  50 minutes

Written and Directed by Valerie Olson van Heest/Produced by Robert Gadbois
 

$19.95

55 years ago, on the evening of June 23, 1950, Northwest Airlines Flight 2501 took off from LaGuardia airport for a stopover in Minneapolis en route to Seattle. As Captain Robert Lind passed over Battle Creek, MI preparing for the Lake Michigan crossing, his radio request for an altitude drop in hopes of avoiding the turbulence of a thunderstorm over the lake was denied. That transmission was the last that was heard from the DC-4. The next morning scattered airplane debris and human remains floating in Lake Michigan confirmed the tragedy -- the plane and all 58 persons aboard was gone, making this the worst passenger aviation disaster of its time. Since 2001, members of Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates have been interested in locating the remains of Flight 2501 in hopes of solving the mystery of why the airplane crashed. Halfway across the nation, Clive Cussler, the author of the non-fiction “Sea Hunters” series, the Dirk Pitt and Kurt Austin adventures, and the force behind the discovery of the Confederate submarine Hunley, was also interested in finding the DC-4. His call to members of MSRA marked his National Underwater Marine Agency’s first project in the Great Lakes. This documentary details the tragedy of Flight 2501 as well as the NUMA/MSRA 2004 joint expedition to find the scattered remains of this DC-4.
    

The Discovery of the Shipwreck H.C. Akeley - 50 minutes

Written and Directed by Valerie Olson van Heest/Produced by Robert Gadbois

  $19.95

On a cold and stormy morning in October 1883, 18 crewmen aboard a Grand Haven built cargo steamer heading from Chicago to Buffalo with a load of corn, struggled to save their lives and their ship and a foundering tugboat. Each man, while faced with his own mortality, was forced to make a fateful decision. Twelve men lived to tell the tale of tragic storm and six men went to their watery graves with their ship the H. C. Akeley Over a century after this disaster, local explorers, Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates, in pursuit of lost shipwrecks off the shores of West Michigan discovered a wreck in 275 feet of water, 15 miles off Saugatuck, Michigan.  After more than a year of challenging survey and documentation supported by a grant from the Great Lakes Shipwreck Research Foundation, MSRA determined that the wreck was not the long lost Chicora as they had presumed, but instead the H.C. Akeley. This documentary details the efforts taken to research and discover lost shipwrecks and the challenges of deep-water shipwreck identification and documentation.  The history of the Akeley’s construction, service record, and the significant individuals and companies that were involved in its life is explored. Through the first video images acquired of this very deep shipwreck shot by scuba divers and remote operated vehicles, MSRA tells the tale of what happened to those 18 crewmembers in the final, fateful moments aboard this doomed vessel.