GUE.TV: Documenting The Gunilda

By Terry Irvine 

The luxury steam yacht Gunilda was the flagship of the New York Yacht Club and the pride of its owner, oil baron William Harkness, one of the wealthiest men in the world at the turn of the century. Unfortunately, a penchant for cutting corners sent this vessel to a watery grave 240 ft/74m deep in Lake Superior.

Interestingly, the wreck served as a testing ground for one of the earliest open circuit mix dives, which was conducted in 1981 by Jerry Buchanon, Bob Horton and Joe Schneeweis using heliox (an oxygen-helium mix). It was also just named #2 in the Ten Best “Technical” Dive Sites in the World in the PADI TecRecBlog.

Here is a collection of a narration and videos of three GUE expeditions in 2012, 2002 and 2000 focused on documenting the famed shipwreck. The 2012 expedition was conducted using RB80s and includes GUE founder & president Jarrod Jablonski. Contrast the image quality of the 2012 and 2002/2000 expeditions!   

Click the image below to watch a short video about the wreck on GUE.tv

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Enjoy this photo gallery

Dive Deeper:

Haunting video shows perfectly preserved wreck of classic steamship Gunilda
Ten Best “Technical” Dive Sites in the World

Terry Irvine is Director of Operations for a food manufacturing facility in Ontario, Canada, and holds an Honors BS in Agriculture.  He completed his full cave course with Jarrod Jablonski in 1995 and his trimix course with Jarrod the following year. Terry uses his cave and mixed gas training to explore and video wrecks of the Great Lakes.  He also enjoys cave diving when time permits.