Josh Gates Hunts for the Resting Place of WW1 Minesweeper | Expedition Unknown | Discovery

All right. I’m headed along the southern shore of the lake to a place known as Deer Park.
I’m on the hunt for evidence of two World War I minesweepers that sank just over a century ago.
Bruce Lynn from the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum has directed me to a historic location a few miles ahead.
There used to be an old lifesaving station there to help stranded ships at sea.
And Bruce has asked me to meet a guy named Jack Hubbard, who apparently has a story that I’ve just got to hear.
Little squirrely.

I pull up at the edge of the lakeshore where I discover a lone figure.
Lifelong Yooper Jack Hubbard, who waits to tell me a firsthand account of the minesweepers’ demise.

Jack.
Yes, sir.
Hey.
I’m Josh. Nice to meet you, man.
Nice to meet you, too. Sit down.
Have a seat with me. You got a great spot here.
Look at this. Beautiful day.
Absolutely gorgeous day.

All right. Bruce at the museum said that there may be an eyewitness to the minesweepers.
Yes.
Now, either you’ve aged really well and I have.
And you have, or it’s not you.
No, it’s not me.
Who’s the eyewitness?
My great grandfather, Richard Chilson.
Your great grandfather?
Yeah. He worked out of the Deer Park Life-saving Station.
And that was, like, right around here. Right? Like, right here. Right here.
There’s a picture of him here.
He would be the one in the middle.
This is him right here. Right there.
Is this the station?
Yes.
Okay.
And this is like the precursor to the Coast Guard.
Yes.
Yes.

The US Life-saving Service operated full-time stations along the coast where treacherous weather threatened sailors crossing the Great Lakes.
Brave volunteer crews would attempt to row out in storms to administer aid to those in distress.

So he’s stationed here.
And what’s the story? What did he see?
Back in those days, men would have to walk the beach a certain amount of miles every night and patrol the beach.
He was walking the beach. He saw the ships out there in the storm coming in close to shore.
And he wanted to get them back out onto the, you know, into deeper water again.

So what does he do?
Yeah, he took two oil lanterns and he was trying to wave them off.
Trying to make them understand that this is the shoreline here.
Right. But he waved them so much.
They had those old lanterns back then that they actually burned his arms.
They were scarred forever after that.

Wow. So this isn’t just some old rumor.
This is like he bore the scars of this event.
Oh, yes. And he talked about it.
Yeah.

So why is this story just coming out now?
Have you been keeping this a secret?
No.
Nobody asked me.

The fact is, this information could be a game changer.
It represents something that wreck hunters never knew existed.
A credible eyewitness report of the minesweepers on the night of their disappearance.

So if you were a betting man, where are those minesweepers?
They’re somewhere out here.
That’s where I would be looking for them.

The account from Jack’s great grandfather places the ships 100 miles east of where they were separated during the storm.
It’s a long way from where everybody else has been looking.

Thanks for asking me.
You got it.

As we sit here, I’m struck by the fact that this lake today is dead calm.
Yeah. If you’d never been here, you might think it doesn’t look dangerous at all.
You look out there right now.
That is the most beautiful place to be in the world.
Out there, it’s so serene.

But I’ll tell you what.
When that ugly witch rears her head out there, all hell breaks loose.
And it’s the most godforsaken place in the world you ever want to be.