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THE INDIANA SALVAGE Part II by Dr. Richard J. Wright Lt. Commander Robert R. Wells was over-all military commander. He came from a family with former lake ties and was fascinated by the scenes surrounding him. Chief Petty Officer James Starcher, complete with crew-cut hair, a repertoire of country songs, guitar, and nineteen years diving experience, was dive master. In all there were 13 "regulars", including a medical team, and 17 reservists. They arrived at Marquette, Michigan, to fit out the COLEMAN with decompression chamber, large generators, dive control console, underwater television equipment, and an array of sophisticated under- water tools during the last week of July 1979. The Smithsonian crew, which numbered from four to eight or nine at various times head- quartered at Little Lake, Michigan, six miles west of Crisp Point. John Steele's thirty-foot LAKE DIVER was used as a ferry for the forty-minute run to the wreck site. She also was used to ferry the divers from the dock at Little Lake to deep water where the LAKE SUPERIOR would ferry them on out to the COLEMAN. They were housed in a motel at Paradise -- a misnomer if ever there was one! Recovery time amounted to nine days over the wreck site. The days tended to run together as this observer watched divers dress, check equipment, go over the side, and come up again. The same applied to deck routine as tenders handled air and communication lines, checked decompression times, etc. The challenging aspect of the ex- pedition came as obstacles were presented in removing the sought- after machinery. Little was known as to exactly how boiler and engine were attached, and care had to be exercised so that they would not be damaged during the recovery. Working at the 110-foot level, divers could spend forty minutes "on the job", then had to decom- press for an additional thirty minutes on their ascent. Visi- bility varied from about forty feet to as much as eighty feet and the bottom temperature was thirty-five degrees. For- tunately the divers' suits were heated with warm water. Because of the nature of the need for bringing up the machinery un- harmed, and even with the most modern of underwater tools, work was slow. For example, a diver only could remove one and half bolts per dive on a single shaft flange which contained six bolts. It would have taken only minutes to perform the same operation on the surface.