The Clifton's Suitcase Find
One of the most significant "finds" on the Clifton took three separate dives to finally recover and investigate. A metal "suitcase" was seen down in the crevice of a lot of debris inside the engine room of the Clifton. On the first dive, when it was initially discovered, there was insufficient bottom time when the divers penetrated inside the Clifton to follow up on. A second dive weeks later was spent by several of the divers investigating how the "suitcase" might be accessed and formulating a post dive plan on how to retrieve it from the deep debris and determine what the contents and purpose of the "suitcase" might be. It was only on a third weekend dive that several of the URA divers again penetrated the Clifton deep into the engine room with a couple of boat hooks that could be extended and the "suitcase" pulled up to be grabbed by one of the divers. The recovery plan also included how best the retrieval could be video taped for historic purposes. The plan to video was only partially successful as there was so much embedded silt surrounding the "suitcase" that as soon as the divers began pulling it up the entire compartment was flooded by dense floating silt and the viewpoint of one of the video cameras filming from above the retrieval work was completely obscured.
The "suitcase" was extracted from the engine room along with the divers as they exited the inside of the Clifton. The "suitcase" was taken up to the deck of the Clifton and carefully opened where there was more natural light and better visibility. As you will see in the images below the case, made of metal, and "divided" with multiple metal internal walls, was full of silt … almost to the top of each internal compartment. The divers very carefully cleared the mud/silt from the inside of the boxes of the "suitcase". They were all empty! Nothing was contained inside the "suitcase". (No treasures … :-( to be found!)
The team has had considerable speculation as to the purpose and contents of this metal "suitcase". Possibly small tools, or spare engine parts, or even documents have been speculated. Nothing conclusive has been determined. One difficult issue that can never be resolved is that with the violent collision of the Clifton with the bottom of Lake Huron … everything … including heavy machinery and larges parts of debris … was greatly displaced and it is impossible to ever determine exactly where the suitcase was originally located on the Clifton prior to the wreck. It is planned to send out these images to a number of marine archaeologists known by Mike Michaels to see if they can provide any insight as to the purpose/contents.
You may wonder what has happened to the "suitcase"? It was not recovered from the Clifton shipwreck. It was left on the open deck of the Clifton for future divers and visitors to see in its natural final resting place. As much as URA might wish to have brought the "suitcase" to the surface and handed it over to marine archaeologists it truly belongs down on the Clifton along with the remains of her mother ship!
Enjoy the mystery of the Clifton's "suitcase" in the images below. Truly a nearly 100 year old mystery ...
The "suitcase" was extracted from the engine room along with the divers as they exited the inside of the Clifton. The "suitcase" was taken up to the deck of the Clifton and carefully opened where there was more natural light and better visibility. As you will see in the images below the case, made of metal, and "divided" with multiple metal internal walls, was full of silt … almost to the top of each internal compartment. The divers very carefully cleared the mud/silt from the inside of the boxes of the "suitcase". They were all empty! Nothing was contained inside the "suitcase". (No treasures … :-( to be found!)
The team has had considerable speculation as to the purpose and contents of this metal "suitcase". Possibly small tools, or spare engine parts, or even documents have been speculated. Nothing conclusive has been determined. One difficult issue that can never be resolved is that with the violent collision of the Clifton with the bottom of Lake Huron … everything … including heavy machinery and larges parts of debris … was greatly displaced and it is impossible to ever determine exactly where the suitcase was originally located on the Clifton prior to the wreck. It is planned to send out these images to a number of marine archaeologists known by Mike Michaels to see if they can provide any insight as to the purpose/contents.
You may wonder what has happened to the "suitcase"? It was not recovered from the Clifton shipwreck. It was left on the open deck of the Clifton for future divers and visitors to see in its natural final resting place. As much as URA might wish to have brought the "suitcase" to the surface and handed it over to marine archaeologists it truly belongs down on the Clifton along with the remains of her mother ship!
Enjoy the mystery of the Clifton's "suitcase" in the images below. Truly a nearly 100 year old mystery ...