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“It’s one of the coolest shipwrecks I’ve seen on the Great Lakes.”

Kohl, 69, is a Windsor author and diver who has helped discover about a dozen shipwrecks, with the two recent Georgian Bay finds at the top of his list for historic importance. His main job is researching to help narrow down the location of mystery shipwrecks.

“There aren’t that many mountains left on the planet to climb but there certainly are shipwrecks left to discover. It’s the whole idea of the excitement of discovery and now we can lay this to rest.”

Photo by Courtesy of Cris Kohl / Windsor Star

The team was led by Kohl’s friend Ken Merryman, who has the archeological licence to search for the wrecks, and Jerry Eliason, both from Minnesota. They found the Manasoo June 30 and then, on the very next day, the J.H. Jones steamer that sunk off the Bruce Peninsula in 1906 with 30 lives lost — rare back-to-back discoveries.

The search for the Manasoo lasted four days over deeper waters before it was found near Griffith Island north of Owen Sound in about 200 feet (61 metres) of water.

The ship started taking on water in a storm in the early hours of Sept. 15, 1928, and was headed to shore. Kohl said it must have sunk faster than expected because most of the lifeboats are still attached. He said there were 116 head of cattle on board and supposedly they shifted to one side causing the ship to tilt and sink. No human remains or cattle bones were found at the wrecksite.

The 178-foot-long ship was built in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1888. It started off as the S.S. Macassa, carrying tourists and cargo between Toronto and Hamilton on Lake Ontario for its first 39 years.