Chris Kopp sits on the edge of the boat tethered to Two Harbors’ western breakwater Saturday morning as Bob Nelson does one final check of Kopp’s oxygen tank.

“Take a breath. Jump. Acclimate. Relax,” says Nelson, of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society.

Kopp, dressed head to foot in a black dry suit, stands up on a platform hanging off the back of the boat. The 20-year-old steps off the platform, going flippered-feet first into Lake Superior’s Agate Bay.

The water feels good, he reports.

“I was a little warm. It feels really good right now,” Kopp says.

However, extraneous air in his dry suit isn’t letting him go underwater easily. After trying to let the air out and adding weights to the suit to alleviate the buoyancy issue - with the help of his dive partner Ken Lillemo and those still aboard the boat - Kopp and Lillemo disappear beneath Lake Superior’s surface.

They’re part of a group of 10 divers with the Boy Scouts of America Venture Crew 820 from the Twin Cities, visiting Lake Superior shipwrecks this weekend with the help of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society.

Saturday’s shipwreck is the Samuel P. Ely, which sank in Agate Bay nearly 120 years ago; the group planned to head to the Madeira shipwreck near Split Rock Lighthouse today.

Venture Crew 820 is a co-ed program focused on scuba diving for youth up to 20 years old who have completed eighth grade, said the crew’s adviser, Dean Soderbeck. Venture Crew 820 draws from all over Minnesota because it’s a specialized unit of the Boy Scouts, he said.

Venture Crew provides an activity for older teenagers after they’ve become too old for the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, Lillemo said. It also gives teenagers meaningful interactions with adults who aren’t their parents - something that Lillemo and his wife appreciated when their son was in Boy Scouts.

“A lot of times as a parent, we wear out our welcome,” said Lillemo, Venture Crew Committee chairman and the crew’s dive master.

Heading to the wreck

Kopp’s and Lillemo’s heads pop up above the surface after going underwater, and Lillemo continues to instruct Kopp on getting the air out of his suit.

“OK, I think I have all the air out of my suit now. Take two,” says Kopp, of Inver Grove Heights, Minn.

He puts his mask back on, and the two divers slowly slide beneath the surface. Bubbles on the surface become the only indication of where they are, and then the bubbles stop completely as bright yellow fins disappear into the darkness of Lake Superior.

Twenty-nine feet below, the divers are swimming in 46-degree water to see the Samuel P. Ely up close.

The 200-foot wooden schooner has sat on the bottom of Lake Superior since it sank in a storm on Oct. 30, 1896. The breakwater was constructed over the ship’s stern, but its hull remains intact on the lake’s bottom.

“If you get lost, go to the breakwater and you’ll find the stern,” Nelson had told the divers before they jumped off the boat in pairs Saturday.

The trip was the third year that the Venture Crew has partnered with the Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society, Lillemo said.

The goal is to set up a legacy so that future generations will be interested in preserving Lake Superior’s shipwrecks after the society’s current membership is gone, Lillemo said. When the teenagers see the shipwrecks, “their eyes are like saucers,” he said.

Return trip

Saturday’s dive at the Ely is the second time at the shipwreck for Daniel Mayerchak, 17, of Otsego, Minn. The Ely was the first shipwreck he visited, he says, and he since has dived on a few other wrecks.

While checking Mayerchak’s equipment, Nelson instructs him to come back to the surface if he has any problems.

“Any issue will be compounded the further you go,” Nelson says.

As Mayerchak steps to the edge of the platform, Nelson notifies Kopp and Lillemo in the water to watch out for Mayerchak jumping in above them.

After coming up from his 20-minute dive, Mayerchak says visiting the ship was “amazing.” Seeing the shipwreck was better the second time because he knew what to expect, he says. Plus, the water was warmer than the last time.

“I thought it’d be colder, but it wasn’t,” he says.

HISTORY

The wreck of the Samuel P. Ely

The 200-foot wooden schooner Samuel P. Ely left Duluth at 11 a.m. on Oct. 29, 1896, towed by the freighter Hesper and headed to Two Harbors to pick up a load of iron ore bound for Buffalo, N.Y.

For nine hours, the Hesper and the Ely battled a raging storm from Duluth to Two Harbors, according to Stephen Daniel’s book, “Shipwrecks Along Lake Superior’s North Shore.” As two ships entered the breakwaters of Two Harbors, the gales were so terrible that the Hesper had to cut the Ely loose. Cutting the towline sent the Ely into the breakwater. Its crew took refuge in the ship’s rigging, but the Hesper was unable to rescue the crew because of the waves.

The Duluth and Iron Range Railroad superintendent heard what happened and telegraphed for help from Duluth. However, the crew bringing a lifeboat from Duluth were blocked by storm debris on the railroad tracks.

Fires were lit on Two Harbors’ shore, and the tugboat Ella G. Stone, pulling a sailboat, headed out to rescue the Ely’s crew. The tugboat let the sailboat drift near the sinking ship, and the crew dropped into the sailboat to be pulled to shore. All of the crew survived.

People can become interested in seeing shipwrecks for various reasons, whether it’s archaeology, history or scuba diving, said Ken Lillemo, Boy Scouts of America Venture Crew 820 Committee chairman.

The wreck of the Ely stemmed from a life-or-death decision - whether the crew of the Hesper should have continued towing the Ely, or cut it free to save itself, Lillemo said, adding: “It’s a tough life with hard decisions.”

Diving on shipwrecks allows people to touch a ship more than a century old and connect with history.

“The story of these boats is the story of Duluth and the story of where they came from,” he said.