Masquite
Posted: December 26, 2013, 1:48 pm
At 2 a.m. on the morning of Monday, December 4, 1989, the 180-foot Coast Guard buoy tender Mesquite ran aground in 12 feet of the dark, icy waters of Lake Superior off Keweenaw Point in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. With a crew of 53 aboard, the cutter was in the process of removing aids to navigation from the lake prior to winter freeze.
The Mesquite suffered severe damage which caused extensive flooding of the engine room. A list to the port side developed, and by 6:20 a.m. Lt. Cmdr. J.R. Lynch, the commanding officer, had ordered abandon ship....Severe weather following the accident left the ship in a poor condition....By mid-December the Coast Guard had determined that the cutter could not be saved. -Fred Stonehouse "Shipwreck of the Mesquite"
The ship was stripped and sunk in Keystone Bay near the site where the ship grounded as a diving attraction in 110 feet of water.
My print of the Mesquite is printed on a chart of Keweenaw Peninsula. It depicts the ship after it was abandoned and Lake Superior had started to work it over. My Mesquite was used to illustrate the book "Shipwreck of the Mesquite Death of a Coast Guard Cutter" by Fred Stonehouse. As part of that project, I was asked to do the Mesquite as it looks on the bottom. It was also used in Julius E. Wolff Jr.'s "Lake Superior Shipwrecks", a book some consider the bible for Lake Superior shipwrecks. The print image size is 17 12X24. It is a limited edition of 300, signed and numbered. $35.00 plus shipping
wsmutch@sbcglobal.net
The Mesquite suffered severe damage which caused extensive flooding of the engine room. A list to the port side developed, and by 6:20 a.m. Lt. Cmdr. J.R. Lynch, the commanding officer, had ordered abandon ship....Severe weather following the accident left the ship in a poor condition....By mid-December the Coast Guard had determined that the cutter could not be saved. -Fred Stonehouse "Shipwreck of the Mesquite"
The ship was stripped and sunk in Keystone Bay near the site where the ship grounded as a diving attraction in 110 feet of water.
My print of the Mesquite is printed on a chart of Keweenaw Peninsula. It depicts the ship after it was abandoned and Lake Superior had started to work it over. My Mesquite was used to illustrate the book "Shipwreck of the Mesquite Death of a Coast Guard Cutter" by Fred Stonehouse. As part of that project, I was asked to do the Mesquite as it looks on the bottom. It was also used in Julius E. Wolff Jr.'s "Lake Superior Shipwrecks", a book some consider the bible for Lake Superior shipwrecks. The print image size is 17 12X24. It is a limited edition of 300, signed and numbered. $35.00 plus shipping
wsmutch@sbcglobal.net