Glass Bottom Boat Shipwreck Tour

This intelligent, well-thought-out tour does everything a good tour should do. In two hours it shows you things it would be difficult to see on your own. The well-informed narrator gives perspective on what you see, and can field many questions. It's a rather complete introduction to shipwrecks. If you pay attention to the detailed narration, you leave having seen things in a new way.
Shipwrecks are intrinsically detailed subjects, focused on piecemeal physical evidence that can be put together only by understanding something about ship construction and shipping. The detail and the many historical observations can be too much for some visitors to handle.

In any case, it's fun to get out on the water and see Grand Island's south shore. To reach the shipwrecks, the boat passes close to the weathered East Channel Light and sandstone cliffs on Grand Island—and it offers a distant view of the west side of the Pictured Rocks.

The shipwreck tour has become so popular that it now uses a much bigger, 101-passenger boat, 60' long, formerly used for the Pictured Rock cruises. The Miss Munising is customized with two large 4'x10' viewing wells. Captain Pete Lindquist, a Munising native and a onetime Air Force diver on Okinawa, has been in the dive business since 1981. Pete now captains the 55' Fireball on scuba-diving adventures. It can handle up to 24 divers, or alternatively, a few divers and their friends and family, who can relax on the sundeck, watch the divers, and grill a meal. Dives can be scheduled for morning, afternoon, evening, and night.

A dive shop with rental equipment and air service is by the dock. The Shipwreck Bookstore is part of the gift shop at the ticket office.

Although Munising Bay is well protected from Superior's storms, 32 shipwrecks occurred in the area as ships sought refuge in the bay but failed to make it. Most wrecks occurred in November, mainly between 1860 and 1929. The shipwreck tour takes you to 3 wrecks and passes over each one 3 or 4 times. To help you understand what you're looking at, the experienced narrator passes out diagrams of how the wreck lies in the water and photos of the vessel's original appearance.

Information is delivered naturally and intelligently. This is not a wind-up, rote tour. Narrators are good at encouraging and answering questions. The iron ore carrier Bermuda, an intact wreck from 1860, is seen from on top. The wooden steamer Herman Hettler went off-course in a 1926 storm and struck a reef off Grand Island's Trout Point. It is on its side. The third wreck, actually discovered by a tour customer, is an anonymous scow schooner whose sinking went unrecorded. Scow schooners, in a pre-Civil War design unique to the Great Lakes, had rounded, barge-like prows instead of pointed hulls.

Some kids really get into this tour. They enjoy speculating about wrecks and spostting things like pop cans on the lake bottom.

From June 1 into mid-Oct., weather permitting, shipwreck cruises leave from the tour dock by the public boat launch at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. In July and August there's also a 4 p.m. tour. This dock is off M-28 at Division St., about a mile west of downtown. Parking off M-28 near tour dock. It is not the same dock as the Pictured Rocks cruise dock downtown, or the Grand Island ferry dock. Visitors are encouraged to make reservations the day before or buy tickets online. Call (906) 387-4477. Cost: $30 for adults, $12 for ages 6 to 12, 5 and under free. Group tours upon request. Handicap accessible, except for motorized wheelchairs.
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