The Francisco Morazan left Chicago bound for Rotterdam on November 27, 1960 . On board were the Captain, his wife and unborn child and crew. They were late in the season and visibility was limited by snow driven by strong winds. Some pretty bad dead reckoning skills put them 70 miles off course from were they thought they were. This wasn't navigation errors caused by lack of equipment - this was errors by failure to use something as simple as a taffrail log to verify their speed. The captain assumed a speed of 8 kts, when they actually were going 6. The made the turn east way early because of this and nailed South Manitou Island dead center. Luckily conditions the next day allowed their rescue.
We swam out to this wreck and I swam into the engine room underwater. The superstructure has been taken over by loons. Loons stink worse than pigs or cows, I couldn't believe the amount of loon poop all over everything.
The water was cold, but the 3 mile walk and swim out to this wreck in about 15 feet of water was worth it.
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