Milwaukee - The Ghost Ships Festival has added four new workshops and more than a dozen speakers to its schedule. The hands-on workshops include: Discover Rebreathers; Documentation and Survey Methods for Shipwreck Sites; Side Scanning & Shipwreck Hunting 101; and Discover Scuba. All of the workshops require advance registration and all, except for Discover Scuba, require a separate participation fee.

The Ghost Ships Festival runs Friday, March 7, 3:00 - 8:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 8, 8:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. at the Wyndham Milwaukee Airport & Convention Center. Advance tickets are $20 and day-of tickets are $25. To purchase a ticket or for more information, visit ghostships.org or send an email to info@ghost-ships.org.

The featured speakers for the 2008 festival are Ralph Wilbanks and Harry Pecorelli, underwater archaeologists from Clive Cussler's National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA). On Friday, March 7 at 7:30 p.m., the pair will share their 15-year journey to locate the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley. Prior to their talk, Wilbanks and Pecorelli will be available from 3:00 - 7:00 p.m. to sign autographs and share stories of their other diving experiences.

Workshops

• March 8, 10 a.m. - noon - Documentation and Survey Methods for Shipwreck Sites - The $30 class fee includes a one-year membership in the Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association - The Wisconsin Underwater Archeology Association workshop will provide a basic understanding of how an underwater site is surveyed, mapped and interpreted using manual methods. The class will cover survey objectives and the use of trilateration, offsets and sketches to generate preliminary maps of underwater sites. The session will include hands-on practice using the tools and techniques covered in the discussion.

• March 8, 1 - 3 p.m. - Discover Rebreathers - The $75 class fee covers rebreather use, gases, scrubber material and handouts. The class requires a basic scuba certification and participants should bring a swimsuit, mask and fins. The workshop will provide a basic introduction to closed circuit rebreather technology, discuss rebreather theory, present differences between closed and open circuit diving and explain the features of popular rebreather units on the market today. Participants will be allowed to sample from 7 different models of rebreathers: KISS Classic, KISS Sport, Megalodon, Inspiration, Evolution, Ouroborus and Optima. This is the perfect chance for the rebreather-curious to try out this next frontier of diving technology. It is also a great opportunity for those with a basic knowledge of rebreathers to compare and contrast design and performance components. The workshop will include hands-on participation with bubble-free diving in the hotel pool (onsite, indoor, heated).

The workshop will be led by Gregg Stanton who has been involved with technical diving and rebreathers since 1974 after graduating from the Scientist-In-The-Sea Program (US Navy and University). As a diving scientist, Stanton has been under the Antarctic ice, H2SO4 Palau lakes, Vancouver reefs, Bahamian and Floridian caves and has explored wrecks, motes, reefs and submerged crime scenes.

• March 8, 10:30 - 11:30 a.m. & 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. - Side Scanning & Shipwreck Hunting 101 - Class fee $75. The class will be led by Jerry Guyer, a Lake Michigan charter captain who has located numerous shipwrecks over the past 40 years.

• March 8, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. - Discover Scuba - There is no additional fee for this class. The class will provide an introduction to scuba diving.
  Additional Speakers and Presentations

In addition to the Hunley presentation, the two-day festival will feature a variety of other experts, films, documentaries and sessions on Great Lakes history and shipwrecks. Guest speakers include:

• Rochelle Pennington, author of two books on the famous "Christmas Tree Ship," will discuss the famous Rouse Simmons wreck, also known as the "Christmas Tree Ship." The Rouse Simmons, a three-masted schooner built in Milwaukee in 1868, carried Christmas trees from Michigan's Upper Peninsula to the docks of Chicago. Captain Herman Schuenemann and his family sold the trees directly from the ship's deck to holiday-minded Chicagoans. On a blustery November day in 1912, the ship and a crew of 16 were hauling a full load of fresh-cut Christmas trees along Wisconsin's Lake Michigan shore when a storm overpowered them. The ship sank and all 16 crew members perished, including Captain Schuenemann. The wreck rests 165 feet below the surface of Lake Michigan, 12 miles northeast of Two Rivers.

• Roger Barski, director of the Nautical Archaeology Group, will discuss the intriguing history of the Alpha Wreck and its possible connection to the Underground Railroad. The Alpha wreck is an old wooden schooner that was discovered on the shores of a Lake Michigan beach in Indiana. It's believed the boat was involved in the transportation of fugitive slaves to Canada sometime during the 1800's. Historic records give no indication of how long the boat and its crew were involved in the dangerous practice of transporting slaves to freedom; but one night the boat was boarded by slave-hunters. The hunters overpowered the crew and burned the boat to the waterline. The fate of anyone aboard the ship that night is unknown.

• Jerry Guyer, owner of Pirates Cove Diving for 30 years, works full time locating Lake Michigan shipwrecks with his Westmar Side Scan Sonar. Guyer will share the wrecks of Hiram R. Bond and the tugboat Ellen.

• Recreational divers Marshall & Laura Lokken, along with Kimm Stabelfeldt from the Great Lakes Shipwreck Research Foundation, will share their experience diving and mapping the historic wreck of Milwaukee Fireboat #23. The fireboat was built in Sturgeon Bay in 1896, fought several notable fires during her 27 years and was later scuttled in Lake Michigan in 1923. The boat was located in 2005 by Guyer.

• Keith Meverden, author and nautical archaeologist with the Wisconsin Historical Society, will take attendees on an underwater tour of the steamer SS Wisconsin as she lies today near Kenosha. Hear her storied history and learn what the Society divers discovered in the frigid depths of Lake Michigan.

• David Trotter, founder of the Undersea Research Associates, has located more than 75 Great Lakes' shipwrecks. Trotter will present Cutting Across Time, a session that explores the advancing equipment used to find shipwrecks and also takes a look at 30 years of shipwreck discoveries in the Great Lakes.

• Frederick Stonehouse, author of 20 books on Great Lakes maritime history, will present the U.S. Life-Saving Service on the Great Lakes, an organization that pre-dated the U.S. Coast Guard and was responsible for rescuing more than 55,000 people in danger on the Great Lakes.

• Greg Such, an accomplished diver and owner of Shipwreck Adventures in Two Rivers, Wis., holds a TDI/SDI highest instructor ratings, is an active cave diver and a United States Coast Guard captain. Such will present Shipwrecks of Mackinaw City and describe the wreck-diving opportunities that are available for divers of all skill levels in the Straights.

• Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates is responsible for locating the wreck of the H.C. Ackley and is currently leading a quest for the Chicora. At the festival, MSRA will present Freshwater Monsoon, a program that delves into the wreck of a small lumber schooner off Saugatuck, Mich. and the lumber industry that sustained the state in its early years.

• Ken Merryman, past president and a founding member of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society, will present Understanding Steam Engines. Using 3D animation, Merryman will build a steam engine and take attendees on a video tour of the engine rooms and machinery of several shipwrecks.

• Erik Petkovic, an experienced wreck diver who concentrates on exploring the many wrecks in Lake Erie's central and eastern basins, will present Deep Survival: Diving Lake Erie's John J. Boland Jr. The session will address why the ship sank in a fierce Lake Erie storm, how the crew survived and Petkovic's experience diving the Boland, including his harrowing dive that resulted in an almost fatal case of the bends. The wreck sits at the bottom of Lake Erie in 137 feet of water off Barcelona, New York.

• Matthew L Higgins will present the Canadian Canal Schooner Jessie Scarth The Jessie Scarth was a three-masted canal schooner that foundered at anchor off of Manistee, Mich. in 1887. The accounts of the sinking of the City of Green Bay and the Havana are well known to Lake Michigan wreck enthusiasts. Higgins will share the story of a third schooner lost in the notorious October 1887 storm. The wreck is partially intact, totally pristine and has been documented with high definition video.

• Mike and Georgann Wachter, international divers who have authored four books, will take attendees on a fascinating tour of 13 New Shipwreck Finds in Lake Erie, including the Courtland, Anthony Wayne, Belle Mitchell and George Weyland.

• Tamara Thomsen is one of a handful of female technical diving instructors, teaching advanced cave and mixed-gas diving. Join Thomsen on a tour of the projects conducted by Wisconsin Historical Society's Maritime Preservation and Archaeology Program during the busy 2007 field season. Hear about the discovery of the port anchor of the Rouse Simmons, see photo mosaics of several coasting schooners, find out more about the survey the SS Wisconsin and learn what's coming out of the state's conservation lab!
  _Ghost Ships Festival Background
  The Ghost Ships Festival brings together top Great Lakes maritime historians, authors and divers from throughout the country. It's an opportunity for the public to learn more about the maritime history of the world's largest inland lakes and see the wrecks that now lay below the surface. The festival includes films, workshops and seminars devoted to shipwrecks, diving and maritime history.

The Ghost Ships Festival is hosted by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Research Foundation, Inc. (GLSRF, Inc.). GLSRF, Inc. is a non-profit group dedicated to creating public awareness of the Great Lakes maritime heritage and promoting conservation, study and responsible enjoyment of historic Great Lakes shipwrecks by divers and non-divers. Proceeds from the Ghost Ships Festival support GLSRF, Inc. and the GLSRF, Inc. grant program._