The Cortland Bell Recovery

On Tuesday, August 22, 2006, The Great Lakes Historical Society, in cooperation with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Office of Coastal Management, the Ohio Historical Society, and the Cleveland Underwater Explorers (CLUE), recovered the bell from The Cortland, a recently-discovered shipwreck in Lake Erie. Christopher H. Gillcrist, Executive Director of The Great Lakes Historical Society, stated that "the recovery of The Cortland bell is an important step in educating citizens of the state of Ohio about the thousands of shipwrecks in Lake Erie and ultimately their value as an archaeological record of this region's economic and social development."

The Society sought a permit from the State of Ohio to recover the bell for three reasons. First, the recovery of the bell will help educate the public as to the importance of the history of submerged cultural resources in Lake Erie. Second, the final confirmation of this shipwreck as The Cortland might be found beneath 168 years of encrustation currently on the bell. Third, recovery of the bell was important due to concern that treasure hunters might steal the bell despite state laws prohibiting salvaging on Ohio's shipwrecks.

The recovery of the bell went without a hitch, according to Carrie Sowden M.A., Archaeological Director of the Peachman Lake Erie Shipwreck Research Center of The Great Lakes Historical Society. Her team included Dave VanZandt, who founded CLUE and is its principal investigator, and diver Kevin Magee. Originally, the team believed it would have to jack up a portion of the deck to remove the bell, but after their first dive they realized that the bell was accessible. Using airbags and a lift line, the three brought the the 70-pound bell to the surface. The bell is almost entirely covered with encrustation. However, the bell is remarkably complete; the clapper that sounded warning signals on The Cortland just prior to her fatal collision 168 years ago is still intact, albeit encrusted to one side of the bell. Dave VanZandt hopes that one day the bell will ring again.

The bell is currently housed at the Inland Seas Maritime Museum in Vermilion, Ohio. It rests in a tank of water as Sowden prepares the bell for months of conservation work. "Even iron, when it comes out of the water after 168 years of submersion, needs to be conserved or it will deteriorate," Sowden notes. Electrolytic reduction, or the process of stabilizing iron using electricity and a chemical bath, should accomplish the task of preservation in approximately three to six months. The Society is currently planning on putting the bell on public display in the museum while it is being conserved. As Sowden points out, the opportunity to teach a little bit of science along with a lot of history within the next two months is too important to pass up.

For more information:
Cleveland Underwater Explorers (CLUE)
Peachman Lake Erie Shipwreck Research Center