IF I could get over there and do so, I'd measure it. The thing is just sitting there. When it was left out in the open after Ike, some people were walking up and just taking pieces of wood off of it. NO ONE stopped them!!! I really don't know if the decision to just let it be a 'temporary' attraction and not to take some serious looks at it rest with the state, federal or local level. Our UWF diggers are great and they're not into this. Why? I wish I knew. We have way more than 400 wrecks in Pensacola Bay and they use them as classrooms for the marine arch. department.

This wreck is amazing because it's accessible and it has the publics interest. NOT researching it is letting a great teaching moment fly away. Not acceptable to my way of thinking but no one ever asked me my opinion. The long view of the wreck and that picture you posted are so close it's got to be an idea to be disproved rather than the the other way round. How often do local schools get a chance for a history lesson like this??!!!!! Just knowing the 'asbestos wasn't used' argument is not valid is huge. This is why I bang my head on classroom walls on a weekly basis.

One question, not really related to this, is ----do you know how close to this or how far from this vessel a coastal steamer that ran from Pensacola to Mobile would be in size and shape? This has nothing to do with this vessel, just personal family history info.

Pam