00;00;00;00 - 00;00;26;09
For nearly a decade, she made her way across Flathead Lake as the largest and most opulent boat to sail its waters. With four bedrooms, a kitchen and a cost of more than $200,000 in today's currency. The Kiyomi was a sight to behold in the late 1920s and into the 1930s. One fateful afternoon in May 1937, a fire sent her to the bottom of summer's Bay in less than an hour.

00;00;26;12 - 00;00;54;17
Where she still sits today. 86 years later, after decades of searches and speculation, the resting place of the dummy was found beneath …

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;26;09
For nearly a decade, she made her way across Flathead Lake as the largest and most opulent boat to sail its waters. With four bedrooms, a kitchen and a cost of more than $200,000 in today's currency. The Kiyomi was a sight to behold in the late 1920s and into the 1930s. One fateful afternoon in May 1937, a fire sent her to the bottom of summer's Bay in less than an hour.

00;00;26;12 - 00;00;54;17
Where she still sits today. 86 years later, after decades of searches and speculation, the resting place of the dummy was found beneath nearly 50ft of water in summer's Bay. By Jody Baker and Jay Barth of the northwest dive and Recovery Service in 2016. Today, the Flathead Maritime Archeology Project is in a race to document and map the site before it is changed forever.

00;00;54;19 - 00;01;21;28
As recorded in the Daily Interlake in March of 1928, the boat was built at the J.W. Swanson Boat Works east of town. During that winter for Kalispell business partners John Sherman and Bert Sailing, the owners of Kalispell Buick dealership Kalispell Motor Sales, oddly enough, the boat was not purchased using profits from their car dealership. Sherman and Salling had profited from an unusual trade to occur.

00;01;22;01 - 00;01;49;29
A stock promoter swapping in an automobile for shares of stock in Kalispell cabin oil fields. The dividends were well beyond all speculation, and the partnership invested their gains to build their new pleasure boat. The KMI featured a large lounge, dining room, kitchen, four state rooms and was the first houseboat on Flathead Lake. At 54ft in length with an 18ft beam.

00;01;50;01 - 00;02;20;10
The KMI is in some sources cited as the largest boat on Flathead Lake at the time. Launched into the Flathead River near the Still bridge east of Kalispell for a crowd of more than a thousand onlookers. In May of 1928, the top deck of the KMI included an 18 by 40ft general lounging space that would go on to host countless parties on the lake over the next nine years, with power furnished by twin 80 horsepower Buick Master six engines.

00;02;20;12 - 00;02;44;05
The Interlake reported that the boat was not intended as a fast boat, but it was easily able to make 10 to 12mph, which it said was comparable to the speeds of the Klondike and other passenger craft on the lake at the time. What the newspaper described as a handsome and comfortable little ship would make its way into the lakes pages several times over the next decade.

00;02;44;08 - 00;03;10;05
Each time a report of some lavish party featuring a variety of guests, from the Copper Kings of Anaconda to local lawyers and schoolteachers and more. The Wendy afternoon of Wednesday, May 12th, 1937, was warmer than usual. At 63 degrees, it was 13 degrees above average. When Sherman and Salling decided to take the newly refurbished Kimmie up for its first cruise of the season.

00;03;10;08 - 00;03;43;08
It had been an interesting week, news wise. Just six days earlier, the German passenger airship Hindenburg had caught fire while attempting to dock at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey, killing 36 people. Earlier on the day of May 12th, the coronation of King George the sixth had been held at Westminster Abbey in London for Sherman, and selling the afternoon was to include a routine shakedown cruise of their houseboat to kick off the season, but that plan would soon turn to disaster, according to a daily Interlake article the following day.

00;03;43;16 - 00;04;06;10
It was shortly after 5 p.m. when Sherman first noticed smoke coming up from beneath the floor in several places and called out to sailing. The only other person on the boat. When the pair opened the engine room, they found a fire so hot that they instantly knew that any hopes of saving their boat were futile. Within three minutes of opening that door, the entire boat was ablaze.

00;04;06;13 - 00;04;26;11
The men made their escape with the use of a small lifeboat, and could only watch as the KMI burned to the waterline and 20 minutes. The Somers Lumber Company tugboat Paul Bunyan rescued the two men from their lifeboat and towed the burning Kiyomi away from the docks and into the bay, where she sank less than 30 minutes later.

00;04;26;13 - 00;04;53;10
Luckily, the boat's 300 gallon main gas tank failed to explode before the ship sank, but three smaller emergency tanks did erupt, sending flames out more than 100ft from the burning ship. And another stroke of luck. The blaze happened with just two men aboard. The event would have been much more disastrous. A week later, when Sherman's daughter, Betty was scheduled to take a group of her college sorority sisters on an outing aboard the boat.

00;04;53;13 - 00;05;18;12
Today, several artifacts have been recovered from the Kimmy's wreck and now reside in the Northwest Montana History Museum in Kalispell. From the ship's anchor, which is on display to numerous recently cataloged smaller artifacts currently in storage. The history of the KMI is being recorded as items from the wreck, such as the boat's propeller, have already gone missing, with multiple dives on the KMI already this season.

00;05;18;14 - 00;05;41;23
The Flathead Maritime Archeology Project is working hard to preserve the boat's history, while it still can.

00;05;41;26 - 00;06;11;16
All right. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Maritime Mysteries of the Flathead, where we teamed up with the Flathead Maritime Archeology Project to take a look at the mysteries lying beneath the lakes and rivers of northwest Montana. I am once again joined by project leader Karen Zimmerman, and as you could probably tell from our intro, this time we will be talking about the Keel Me, the luxury houseboat that roamed Flathead Lake during the Great Depression era and sink to the bottom of summer's Bay, and a fiery disaster in May of 1937.

00;06;11;19 - 00;06;31;20
How are you doing, Kai? I'm doing great. How about yourself? Doing awesome. So tell me, you've been involved with the KMI for quite a while now. How did that happen to you? Tell us a little bit about how you got involved in this. Absolutely. so the first time I dove on the keel me was with another archeological project, back in 2016.

00;06;31;23 - 00;06;51;02
I'd come from I just got back from New Zealand doing a bunch of underwater film work there, and I was contacted by, a fellow by the name of Jody Bakker. they were working on a film project they were trying to put together, like a little document, not really a documentary series, but, like an underwater salvage.

00;06;51;02 - 00;07;13;05
Kind of like the, the beginnings of this project that we're working on today. diving around Flathead Lake, diving around the Flathead River system, and, putting together, like, a little, a little show about underwater salvage. So, you know, they they done some survey work. They located a couple of sites, but they needed a cameraman to really complete this project.

00;07;13;05 - 00;07;37;04
So I was one of the first in the running for that. And, one of the episodes that we had started, was diving on the Kill Me, and I was the lead cameraman for that project. Awesome. So you guys were the first people to see this wreck after it went down? What was that like? That was a phenomenal experience.

00;07;37;07 - 00;08;10;20
so when up until that point, you know, I'd been doing a lot of biological or a lot of environmental documentation, you know, filming fisheries and filming how humans have that interaction with, with marine ecosystems. But this was one of the first documentary projects that I'd done where it was really history focused. And, you know, ever since then, diving on, diving on history, you really sense there's like, a sense of gravity around these sites, you know, and that gravity really doesn't let you go too easily.

00;08;10;22 - 00;08;38;04
So, the day that I first dove on the keel, me, it was, I was, I think it was around. Maybe it was later in the season. I think it was like September or October. Okay. so there wasn't a lot of boat traffic. The water was quite clear. And, I remember getting out on the boat over the side, and, Jody was like, all right, Kai, we want you to go down it and film it first so we can get like an under an uncluttered shot.

00;08;38;04 - 00;09;01;19
You know, before that, other divers had come down so they weren't kicking up silt or anything. And, they're like, just just follow the line down. They had they had a line affixed near by the site. So I popped on to the line and just dropped down, and I had my camera ready. And I'm looking at my depth gauge, you know, ten feet, 20ft, 30ft, 40ft, and then right around like 52, 56ft.

00;09;01;22 - 00;09;20;05
you just see the shadow kind of emerge out of the darkness. And we were right at the bow or right at the front of the keel. Me and seeing how the boat was tipped upside down, you know, the anchor was there, the front of the bow was there, and it just kind of opened up in front of me.

00;09;20;05 - 00;09;48;14
And it was just it was one of those moments that you're just never going to forget. You know, it really solidified my, my, my passion, my interest. It just sparked this wonder inside of me that this piece of history is right here. And I'm one of the first people to see it since it sank in 1937. And that just really cemented my passion for underwater film, at least in this historic context.

00;09;48;16 - 00;10;21;26
so I swam nice and slow around that, around the boat, just filming and taking pictures. And every stroke I made with my fins, it just like more of it opened out. You got to see the starboard side where the fire had burned away. The decking, spanning all the way down to where the propeller was and the rudder and, the railing and some of the debris field on the, the stern of the boat, making a full circuit around it was just it just captured me as much as I was capturing that wreck.

00;10;21;29 - 00;10;54;21
So what kind of condition is that record? So at that point, I mean, obviously the boat, it burned, you know, so the amount of structure that remained was very well preserved. flooded Lake does a good job not deteriorating wrecks. Very well. any metal structures obviously there's going to be rust. rust will grow kind of form and then, you know, currents or, you know, coming in contact with the wreck or altering it too much that rust can deteriorate and then exposing the layer of metal underneath for new rust development.

00;10;54;23 - 00;11;12;17
so that's a little bit of a factor that we got to be mindful of when we're on the wreck is not to alter it, not to come in contact with it as much as possible. now, what really is interesting is that the it's upside down, right? Right. So you can see the bottom of the hole where it hadn't been burned.

00;11;12;19 - 00;11;41;09
that's in miraculous condition. penetrating into the wreck, you know, wondering what's underneath there. We haven't really been able to access that very effectively. earlier this season, I did put my ROV in there. however, that ROV is quite large, so we can't penetrate into the wreck very far at all with that particular one. My smaller yellow ROV is much more, it's well, better designed for filming work.

00;11;41;13 - 00;12;04;12
You know, you can get much better angles of imaging and, it's much smaller so we can penetrate deeper into the wreck without altering it so much or disturbing it so much. So with the blue ROV, we were able to get in there and take our first look inside of the wreck. to really get an idea of what how what it is like, what condition is it in and what can still be left or what can still be seen, associated with that site?

00;12;04;15 - 00;12;25;27
but right now it is in miraculous condition. And it's pretty amazing to be able to documented in this state. So what kind of objects are you finding? Well, the keel me, as we seen earlier, it was a pleasure yacht. You know, it was a houseboat. So it had a lot of modern conveniences of the time, you know, silverware, indoor plumbing, indoor plumbing.

00;12;25;27 - 00;12;53;21
Now, that was something, you know, that it had hot water and cold water. That was pretty cool, right? so, you know, a lot of things that we would associate with, with the houseboat. Yeah, it had it, you know, it had living accommodations, silverware, plates, ceramic, sinks and all that. but, yeah, you know, just just being able to have that stuff on a boat at the time was pretty significant for the 1930s.

00;12;53;23 - 00;13;19;25
That's awesome. And you, you knew the daughter of the person who owned the boat, right? Yeah. Dorothy. So part of that, production that we were working on back in 2016. we had the opportunity to interview Dorothy. Dorothy was 11 years old at the time of that boat sinking. Dorothy McGlynn. Correct. Dorothy McGlynn. That's right. And she had, an amazing account of living memory associated with that boat.

00;13;19;27 - 00;13;48;01
And, her family's history with the keel. Me and being able to document that interview as well, again, was just it really made that whole story come full circle from her experiences with the boat actually being on that ship at the time, documenting how her father came back after the event that we filmed in the interview. he was covered in soot, and he just came in the house, and he and he was just very, very distraught.

00;13;48;03 - 00;14;08;20
And she just said one of the first things that he said with that, he came in was the keel me was gone. And just the weight of that statement, you know, kind of she carried with her for the rest of her life. So being able to document the keel me and show her the footage back in 2016, just really opened up so many memories for her.

00;14;08;22 - 00;14;30;06
Well, this was their summer home for nearly a decade. Their house burning down. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. It was definitely a pretty significant event for her. And, listening to her retell those events, was really impactful for me, too. You've been down there when you first found it. Were on the first people on the on the scene. And now you've been back several years later.

00;14;30;07 - 00;14;54;16
How is it changed over those years? I would say the biggest thing that we've noticed is, some of the material has or some of the structural, some of the structure of the keel has been removed. my first diving on it, the propeller was there. since diving on it, the propeller has been removed. we really don't know where that is today.

00;14;54;18 - 00;15;19;02
it's still in good condition, I would say. Hasn't. Hasn't been a lot of, deterioration. Hasn't been a lot of impact from other divers on that site. but we haven't been able to really document the entirety of that site. So that's what we're aiming to do with this 2023 survey, is to re dive on it, collect a full 360 degree photographic model.

00;15;19;02 - 00;15;40;25
So we'll have a 3D replica of that site. we're going to extend our survey to include some of the debris field that wasn't documented back in 2016. so as the, KMI caught fire, there were explosions associated with the gas tanks igniting. how much of that material was actually broadcasted farther away from the existing Kiyomi site?

00;15;41;02 - 00;16;07;28
That might not be documented, right? we also have the capabilities with our smaller ROV to document what's inside the wreck. That really hasn't been done, even in that 2016 survey. So getting our smaller ROV in there, documenting what material could be inside the hole or inside or underneath the boat, and really capturing that and preserving that. And she obviously flipped upside down as she was going down.

00;16;07;28 - 00;16;27;19
So, I mean, I've been out there with you and there's that debris trail of just the railing falling off. so that that going to be part of the survey as well? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. With, with our sophisticated side scan sonar, we can capture, in much higher detail. the, the extent of the debris field around the wreck.

00;16;27;19 - 00;16;46;26
So we can capture that railing, we can capture some of the fuel tanks that we documented. and we can scan a bigger area around where the KMI sits now to really capture that whole site and everything associated with it. So you pulled up some artifacts, that are over at the Northwest History Museum. Correct. What was that like?

00;16;46;26 - 00;17;08;18
Pulling up things off the bottom for the first time in 85 years? it was, it was harrowing, you know, whenever you pull something. Now, we did have permission from Dorothy to extract, extract artifacts for her identification. one of the big things that whenever we do dive on a wreck is. What is it? You know, how do we find out?

00;17;08;21 - 00;17;30;09
Is this the wreck that we're looking for? Could this have been a totally different boat? You know, aside from collecting measurements? Okay, we know that the KMI was 54ft long. Is that correct? Yes. Yeah. Yep. 52, 54ft long. In that podcast, we know our dimensions. so we know the dimensions of a wreck. We can compare that to, other documents.

00;17;30;12 - 00;17;57;16
but having the opportunity to interview Dorothy directly, was a miraculous a very a fortress, opportunity because we were able to pull up, handles for cupboard doors. Right. And she remembered stories associated with those cupboard handles. She, she just, like, remembered opening them up and and playing with them as a, as a child. another significant thing was the ice tongs.

00;17;57;18 - 00;18;24;08
They're like these big, big hooks, you know, that you use to grab onto ice and transfer them to an ice box. And when we presented that to her, she remembered those ice tongs and had personal stories and personal memories associated with that tool. you know, she she loved it when the ice wagon came and she'd be able to see the ice workers, like, pull up the ice, put them in the ice box, and they'd lay it with food and pies and, you know, fruits and things.

00;18;24;08 - 00;18;44;08
And she was just like, it was so exciting because when the Ice Man came, you know, she knew that they were going to go out on the lake. And she just remembered seeing that those ice tongs were just so cool. we pulled up chunks of ceramic and she was able to identify that was the piece of the sink that was in the kitchen or in the lavatory.

00;18;44;08 - 00;19;02;25
I was wondering head. Yes. So she was able to identify those pieces of ceramic that were large enough for her to identify as the sink, and she'd play in the water and all that. So now she was two in this boat was built and ten when it went down. It's amazing that she could remember all that. Hey, you know, I mean, it was a pretty impactful event.

00;19;02;26 - 00;19;36;09
You know? So yeah, she had a lot of experiences on that boat. And it was amazing to be able to to hear those stories. as she was able to tell them. That's awesome. So what happens next? Well, I mean, right now we're planning on going back and doing a much more comprehensive survey of the KMI. again, ready, documenting it with our higher resolution cameras, going in and doing that for photogrammetry model and, preparing the ROV to actually penetrate inside of the wreck to do an interior documentation of that site.

00;19;36;11 - 00;20;00;03
so our next what we're going to be doing next is, yeah, planning and getting that survey underway. All right. I want to take us through some of this footage that you've got down there in the kill me. Oh, man. So the kill me again. There's so much. There's so much to it. You know, there's a lot of personal, feelings tied up with this boat being the first, you know, ship.

00;20;00;03 - 00;20;26;08
The first boat that I documented. that really it really cemented this magic. You know, this this this gravity, this weight, this this this, this treasure of diving on these sites. So here we can see the propeller or the stern of the boat, the back of the boat, the the rudder. He's here. The lack of propeller is what I was trying to say.

00;20;26;11 - 00;20;54;11
it just documents that. Yeah. You know, these sites are subject to, you know, human modification throughout time. You know, as soon as we first dove on this, the propeller was intact. now you can see that it's missing. You know, that documents that these sites are subject to deterioration, you know, cultural loss. So being able to document these sites in their entirety, you know, it does have a lot of significance, and it does have a lot of importance to do that.

00;20;54;13 - 00;21;16;27
this is the back structure. Dorothy was telling us that this little platform here, she would jump off and swim in, off the back of the boat. I think we saw that in some of the intro video. Yep. Here you can see a significant amount of damage on the back of the stern. likely that's where that fire was probably at its hottest right back here where the motors were.

00;21;17;00 - 00;21;39;17
And this we just saw a little bit of on the bottom right corner or the bottom left corner. There was possibly one of the fuel tanks. So here we're navigating along the top of the key or I guess would be the bottom of the keel. Me. heading towards the bow or the front of the boat? Looks like it's in pretty good shape.

00;21;39;19 - 00;22;09;28
It really is. Yeah. Flooded. Just the environmental conditions for Flathead Lake right now are ideal for preserving, wooden material. You know, they're low oxygen content, cool water, not direct exposure to sunlight. it's perfect for preserving these wrecks. Now, in the event of, let's just say mussel introduction, you know, zebra mussels or quagga mussels get introduced.

00;22;10;02 - 00;22;32;15
All of this structure is going to be completely encrusted with a thick layer of those muscles. And we wouldn't be able to see, see this boat as it is. So that's why it's important to document it. Now, there's so many reasons why it's important to document it. Now, the muscles are just one of the biggest threats that could pose a, a threat to this site.

00;22;32;17 - 00;22;57;02
you know, also just the ability to interview people who have living memories of these wrecks are, you know, we're losing them on a daily basis, potentially. you know, I keep referring back to interviewing Dorothy, who had such an amazing history and being able to talk to her and being able to see her eyes light up and tell these stories associated with this boat.

00;22;57;05 - 00;23;19;08
You know, she she passed two years ago. And, you know, if we hadn't taken the time to to to find her and interview her and share her story, you know, we'd never know. You know, that's another reason why this this work is so valuable. Because. Yeah, the boats there, you know, being able to document it and tell that story to it.

00;23;19;08 - 00;23;26;21
But, you know, being able to have that connection with that wreck will never have it again.

00;23;26;23 - 00;24;00;11
So, you know, being able to tell you know, our story, you know our story as a community. Our story is, you know, living on this lake. We're all connected to it and losing that story. You know, we're losing some of our culture. We're losing some of ourselves in it. So here what we're doing is we're taking the ROV, and we're just doing a rudimentary scan along the starboard side, or, yep, it would have been the historic port side, but it's under upside down would be the port side of that.

00;24;00;14 - 00;24;19;28
So we can just kind of pan along the side. The kill me was it was a pleasure yacht. It was made to transport. Have to go parties on the gas tank. Likely. Yep. Now there was two main tanks and then a couple of, auxiliary tanks or emergency fuel tanks. One large 300 gallon tank. And then they had three emergency tanks.

00;24;19;28 - 00;24;30;21
I don't think that one on the starboard side was the large 300 tank. Here. You can see it a little bit.

00;24;30;24 - 00;24;42;13
So if we can't get a better shot of it here. I think you were piloting the ROV at that time, right? Oh, good.

00;24;42;15 - 00;25;09;02
Kicking around? Yeah. clips almost over. All right. So, yeah, I think on this particular video survey, we weren't, the main objective was just to dock it like it wasn't for full documentation purposes. It was mostly just to show you guys the wreck. because, yeah, you were on the surface boat and, you know, we didn't have you geared up and scuba ready, so we use the ROV to just show you what it looked like.

00;25;09;05 - 00;25;29;26
Oh, this is good. This is actually a really nice shot. This must have been 2022. This was another trip I made out to it. So I have made several other dives on the kill Me since that 2016 survey. So this is the first time we were able to get accurate GPS documentation or records of the site. Here you can see the railing extending beyond the stern of the boat.

00;25;29;29 - 00;25;36;16
Major entanglement hazard if you're running an ROV.

00;25;36;18 - 00;25;44;09
Looks like it's a large tank. Likely one of those fuel tanks.

00;25;44;11 - 00;25;59;00
So what part of the boat are we looking at? So this is the stern or the back of the boat? since it's upside down, it would be the port side. But here you can see it's the right side. Since it's upside down.

00;25;59;03 - 00;26;23;06
And there you can see a little bit of the keel with the tether obscuring the view a little bit. Now we're navigating towards the front of the boat or the bow. 39m. So just under 60ft.

00;26;23;08 - 00;26;44;07
So this was taken 2022. It must have been kind of a fuller pool. Flooded lake was a little bit deeper. So all of these depth measurements are you know, they vary depending on the depth or the volume of the lake. So one year it's 54ft. Another year it might be 62ft about ten feet difference. So what are we looking at here.

00;26;44;10 - 00;27;05;10
This is the front of the boat. So here, the the front port side of the left side of the boat. This is where the had the most fire damage. So this represents our main access point to get inside the wreck. Here you can see the fire burned a significant amount of that here. We're actually getting inside a little bit.

00;27;05;13 - 00;27;37;10
Welcome to your first view inside this boat since 1934 37. Since it sank. Well, look at that. So the blue ROV is a little heavy. It's a little negatively buoyant, so it tends to sink. it makes it really good for recovery operations, but not the best for video documentation. because it settles down, we can get really stable view from static shots.

00;27;37;12 - 00;28;01;22
But if we try to navigate deeper into the wreck, the thrusters are going to churn up a lot of sediment. So, I intentionally didn't want to go too far into the wreck using this equipment. having scuba divers go in, poses a really high risk, because you'll see that there's a lot of pipes. There's a lot of stray pieces of timber.

00;28;01;24 - 00;28;31;24
creating a really high entanglement risk. you also just see the fine sediment that does get turned up. you'll lose visibility extremely quickly. So it's likely it's it's going to be a very high risk to send in man like divers into this site documented. because it's really small, really hard to navigate around in there. ROV is going to be the best tool to use to document this site.

00;28;31;26 - 00;28;54;00
When you're swimming around the outside of this wreck, how much sunlight penetrates down that far? So I mean, you can see, you know, at about 60ft, you know, you still have you still have light. but it's far less intense than if it was like 6 or 8ft deep, you know. the first thing you'll notice that there's not a lot of vegetation growing around it.

00;28;54;02 - 00;29;18;08
the steamboat Willis, for example, is about 6 to 8ft deep. So there's a lot of vegetation growing around it. Every year, you'll have new growth of weeds that'll grow around the site and then lay down as the weeds die back, and it'll build up layers of vegetation and decay around it. whereas the keel, it's deep enough where you don't have a lot of vegetation growing around it.

00;29;18;11 - 00;29;45;25
And, it's preserving that site a lot better. here you can see the inside. You can see the decking kind of coming up. Some of this main structure on the keel. Wow. Isn't it just amazing? And there you could see piece of piping or possibly. Yeah, most likely a pipe. All of that would pose an extremely high risk for divers.

00;29;45;28 - 00;30;19;16
you know, getting our, regulator hoses caught up on that, you know, not being able to turn around to get out in the event of an emergency. yeah. Wreck penetration or wreck diving, you know, requires a lot of specialized training. OOP, there. We're coming around here. You can see a real world example of what it would look like if you were panicking in a wreck, not being able to see or getting out very easily.

00;30;19;18 - 00;30;40;08
so whenever you're diving, you know, overhead environments like the keel me would definitely serve as an overhead environment. You don't have a direct access to the surface. So if we were in the wreck and see we ran out of air, say we had a equipment malfunction, say that there was an injury that we needed to evacuate that wreck quickly.

00;30;40;11 - 00;31;08;12
that environment would not allow us to do so. So we have to take very special precautions, not only for preserving the integrity of the wreck. You know, a stray fin kick could disrupt a piece of parchment that might have some important documentation on it, you know? you know, we might damage some fragile glassware or something, you know, that we would really want to preserve.

00;31;08;14 - 00;31;33;19
and the main objective for, for my work is not recovery. You know, my goal isn't to take pieces away from this site. my objective is to document the site with the most sophisticated technology that I have available. So, you know, my goal is to, you know, use photograph tree, you know, to document and preserve this site to the best of our abilities.

00;31;33;21 - 00;32;02;19
you know, we we are reaching out to, you know, leading maritime archeology experts with with Woods Hole Institute. We have, very good contact that we've made, with them and they're going to be providing some counsel how to, you know, do proper wreck, preserve or do more advanced, more sophisticated wreck preservation, techniques. It's, you know, it's the best that we have with the resources that we have.

00;32;02;22 - 00;32;22;21
So if we wanted to, you know, really see this project move forward. You know, we need better equipment. You know, this is a kit ROV that I built myself. Well, you know, I mean, that that really does add to the reality of the situation. You know, these projects cost a lot. You know, ROVs are expensive. You know, underwater camera equipment is expensive.

00;32;22;23 - 00;32;48;19
And, you know, yeah, we're getting financial support in every little bit of financial support. It is helpful. But, the more the more we can fund, the more we can do to, a higher level of quality. as a coming at this from an underwater photographer perspective, you know, I have experience taking pictures. I have experience documenting these sites in a compelling and informative way.

00;32;48;22 - 00;33;12;05
but when it comes to artifact preservation, you know, if we were to remove a piece of equipment, there is so much involved with, you know, preserving that artifact where it can be you know, viewed by the public. you know, these sites have been submerged for, you know, 100 years, 80 years, you know, in some cases even longer.

00;33;12;07 - 00;33;43;09
You know, to bring that up to the surface requires an extreme amount of, you know, precise preservation skills and techniques. You know, you can't just pull out a piece of lumber and expect it to sit on a museum shelf. they need to be properly dried. They need to be properly cataloged and preserved. so my approach is documenting them where they are presently, which is significantly easier.

00;33;43;11 - 00;34;03;21
It's like you're diving done. You're documenting it. but, you know, having the right lighting, the writing, having the right equipment to do that to the best of our abilities is definitely, it's it's a skill it takes a lot of a lot of time and a lot of experience and a lot of, knowledge of a site to document it to the best we can.

00;34;03;24 - 00;34;26;09
you know, the external survey area around the Kiyomi, you know? Yeah, I've dove on it, like, maybe about 20, maybe just shy of 20 times now. You know, I know the wreck. I know the extent of the debris field. And I know we can document, you know, with, with diving, being able to penetrate inside of the wreck.

00;34;26;12 - 00;34;51;23
That's a whole other goose egg right there. You know that first dive that we saw here on the ROV, looking at the interior, seeing how much debris is scattered underneath the deck? You know, in some of these frames we'll be able to look at, we can see, you know, pieces of metal, maybe pieces of pottery, maybe pieces of of dining where, that's covered underneath that sediment.

00;34;51;25 - 00;35;12;26
it's still a mystery to me. It's still a mystery. There's still loads of mysteries to solve here. you know, what else can we find? What else is still preserved after that fire? Solving the mysteries. That's the whole point of this project. You know, I think. I think that's what really makes this, there's still stories to be told.

00;35;12;28 - 00;35;38;20
You know, in all of these sites, there's still. There's still something that's that's calling out to be discovered. So, you know, again, that just really, shows that these types of projects require so much support and, every amount of support is valued. the Northwest Montana History museum, you know, they were a leading part, of our 2016 survey.

00;35;38;20 - 00;36;04;14
And it sounds like they're continuing to be amazing support here in this 2023 survey. Absolutely. getting access to the to the artifacts last week was amazing. Going through the archives and finding that footage, that video, home video footage from Dorothy from 1928. It's absolutely amazing. I don't even think I've seen pieces of that. Like some of it looks familiar, but there was a lot of video documentation that, you know, I'd still seen for the first time.

00;36;04;14 - 00;36;37;28
So, you know, thank you to, northwest Montana, Montana History Museum for for providing that and preserving that. Absolutely. This episode would not be what it was without their help. And our next episode. Yeah. That's correct. You know, another special thanks to the underwater soldiers. the dive shop here in, flooded, flooded Montana. you know, we did a couple of other dive surveys, and we definitely used, you know, some of the divers to help document another site out in woods Bay.

00;36;38;00 - 00;37;03;10
they were help collecting some measurements and documenting on a steamboat that we have located, but yet to identify a large steamboat. It was a big one. Yeah, I think it's comparable, if not a little bit larger than the KMI. So about 50, maybe 55, 56ft long. that particular site, the stern or the back end of the boat, is covered in an underwater landslide.

00;37;03;10 - 00;37;23;22
So what would that be called? just be, sediments slide. Yes. It's covered. So we weren't able to measure, possibly, you know, another several feet that's been buried underneath that rock and debris. So, you know, we were able to document what we can, but they're still yet to determine. So, again, there's lots of things to discover yet.

00;37;23;24 - 00;37;40;00
Yes. Another mystery for us to unravel here on the maritime mysteries of the Flathead. So go ahead and, join us next time as we dive into more of those mysteries. And, thanks for being here, Kai. Hey. No problem. Thank you for having me. I'm really excited to share what we can find. All right, folks, we'll see you next time.

00;37;40;08 - 00;37;48;19
All right, tiger, easy.