In 1972, at Lake Mead I watched a fiberglass, V-8 powered speed boat catch fire and burn in a few inches of water due to an over heated engine which melted the fuel line. The V-8 was huge, w/a turbo charger. The owner abandoned it where it sat.
Love this video. Being a wooden boat builder I believe that little boat with the outboard now removed is much like, if not a 60's homebuilt "Minimax". Once published in "Mechanix Illustrated" at that time. Two 4x8 foot sheets of plywood and a transome got her done. That was a large outboard for this design. Quite possibly the reason it is where it is but it would have gone 50+ mph quite readily with half the outboard. The big wreck has "hull red" paint, typical on larger wooden boats up to the waterline. The tube is likely the "Stuffing box" which housed the driveshaft. The inner end is always above the waterline otherwise water could backflow into the hull. Love the coyote footage. Seeing the wildlife adapt is encouraging is a discouraging scenario otherwise. You have a great aesthetic. Thanks much.
Surely some of the owners of these sunken boats there in Lake Mead are still alive. I wonder what memories are brought back by seeing their boats re-emerge.
Looking at the boat and how its planked.... Id say it was an old 'Chris Craft' motor boat... It would fit the vintage, as well as the hardware you found... but without examining the wreck in person I couldnt say for certain. :D would be awesome to visit that site, and the landing craft... I gotta take a trip up there before it fills up again!
@@quailshootr6389 I do have faith. I have faith that the glory days of blind ignorance followed by blatant denial are over and it's time to face reality.
The 2nd boat is a 50s area 20' Skagit. it was the first 'mass produced' fiberglass boat, manufactured in sedro woolley washington. The wood floor, stringers and transom will be rotten but is worth saving.
Twin engine boat appears to be a late 50s early 60s maybe lonestar?? I gotta do some research. The evinrude is a 1959 or 1960 I think 75hp. Upon some further research, it's about a 59 or 60 Glasspar Club Mariner. Cool boat. As far as the bars at the top. The one if from the bimini top and the other that is fixed to the roof use to hold another windshield. Was a neat boat at one time.
Everyone calls them ship wrecks. They aren't, they are boat wrecks. To be classified as a ship it must be a minimum of 197 ft. And built for ocean going or large lake such as the great lakes. Cool videos !
That is an old twin engine power boat with a planning hull. The two holes in the transom were for the exhaust. It was probably built sometime in the mid 50's.
That engine was called a straight 8, very popular in the 30's and 40's. An inline 8 cylinder usaly in more expensive cars Cadillacs and cords and such. Back then you needed big engines for big power. I doubt it was a diesal. I would say it was an expensive high end boat. It had dull exhust thats why 2 holes in the transom and 2 mufflers. I bet it sounded good.
The old remnants of that boat has phillips heat screws, that means the boat could not be older than 1932 unless it had some repair work performed at some point.
Lake Mead began to be filled in 1935 and the area slowly became flooded. One of the last remaining residents, Hugh Lord, paddled away from home when the rising waters hit his front door in 1938. Eventually, the lake completely covered the now-abandoned town, submerging it 60 feet below the surface.
I found out at a recent wood boat get together that Chris Craft boats as recent as 2019 can still be ordered the old fashioned way made from the finest wood. Thought I was looking at a restored antique until I saw the builders plate and then the owner opened the engine cover to reveal a supercharged LS6 engine rated at 600hp. That boat may not be as old as you think.
That is amazing, thank you for exploring, filming and sharing this history! It is so frightening what is happening, but it's awesome and also eerie to see and imagine the people who built and used those boats.
lake mead was dedicated in the mid thirties and didn't fill until early 40s. based on the location of the wreck, Id guess it sank sometime in the 40s or 50s
Thanks for your MOST interesting videos. It's very sad that Lake Mead is disappearing so fast but fascinating from an artifact point of view. There is a small, but VERY deep, lake five minutes walk from here which is is to have a Sherman tank from WWII in it. The tank was part of a convoy on the road next to the lake when it went out of control and careered down the tape slope and into the water taking it's crew to their deaths. Greetings from England.
Thanks for some great videos. There's a lake five minutes walk from here (miniscule compared to Lake Mead !) That is said to have Sherman tank in it from WWII. It was in a convoy and went outof control on a road nearby and tumbled into the lake taking the crew with it. Greetings from the UK !
I realize this may be a naive comment, since I’m sure it would cost a great deal, but couldn’t those boats and other trash be removed? So that when (hopefully soon) the lake refills it will be a much cleaner body if water?
some things like old sunken boats become more than trash, they become artifacts showing their histories and time periods with their wear. Take the higgins boat for example- maybe when it sunk it was an old junker bygone from a 20 years ago war- but now after decades under that water it helps connect the youth of today with that war, showing the true scale of what they've only seen in movies and games. It will also connect with future generations that may not have a lake mead to look back to and remember (hopefully not but never rule out possibilities). As for how dirty they make the water? pretty negligible with how few boats there are at the bottom so far, if there was 50 boats on top of each other- yeah i'd say clean it up- but that's not the case here.
Fish structure... Barren bottom lakes fish population is near nothing. Artificial reefs. Motor oil is long gone. Glad they scratched the lame idea to get water from where I live and work; the Mississippi River.
Let's put it this way it's taken 20 years for the lake to get to this point. It may take twice that long to the lake to go back to where it was who knows remember the Mayan culture was wiped out because of drought
The water level drop in 3 weeks as shown by that tire is indicating that the water levels are dropping by 3-4 feet a month. Unless something changes, like a lot of rain or snow, innactive pool status at that lake is about 3 - 4 years away and dead pool not too long after that. Sad to see. May God bless the USA and the world as a whole. We are in deep trouble at this point.
- I heard 8" a day which would be 20' in a month. The 3rd intake is leaking to middle Earth. Data centers are sucking it dry also. Henderson, NV and Mesa, AZ. (evaporative cooling for servers) You aren't told the billions of gallons they take per day.
@@DKSorg - $$$$ and if (no it does) Google works hand in hand with a government that wants to know everything about it's citizens while at the same time pushing the climate change because humans are bad. The climate has changed throughout the eons when humans weren't even here. So they get free water and electricity. The 3rd intake was completed in 2015. Construction of the Henderson, NV data center started in 2019. Between 2015 and present day how much has the elevation of the lake dropped? I can't give you a quick number but if you look at a graph of that data you'll see a sharp drop off. So look at the enormous size of that 3rd intake and ask yourself why is it so much bigger than the 1st and 2nd intakes. The tunnel is about 25' - 30' in diameter! Why that large? Who knows for sure if another TBM didn't drill another tunnel under the lake for GOD knows what. Don't believe they use water to cool their servers on the cheap (to them) screw everyone else? Meta Is Adding Three Data Centers to Already Massive Mesa Campus The amount of water necessary to cool Facebook data center campuses in the US (including an “East Coast Leased Data Center Facility”) was 3 million cubic meters (790 million gallons) in 2020, according to the company’s own sustainability report. www.datacenterknowledge.com/meta-facebook/meta-adding-three-data-centers-already-massive-mesa-campus We are ignoring the true cost of water-guzzling data centers gcn.com/cloud-infrastructure/2021/10/we-are-ignoring-the-true-cost-of-water-guzzling-data-centers/316441/ The Henderson, NV data center is Google/RU-vid so right now you and I are wasting water. 1983 when the spillways were overflowing ... was that before the internet? I believe it was!
I think the same, just by the Philips screws at 3:26, I think it's from the 50's, maybe 60's. If it was from the origin of the dam, those screws would've been flat head screws.
That wooden boat burned to the water line. The mufflers appear to be the Cherry Bomb type used in the 1960s/70s. It appears that the engine was salvaged before the craft was set afire. It could have been insurance fraud.
The old Landing craft appears to be a US Navy LCVP (Landing craft, Vehicle & Personnel) which were made in New Orleans, LA ... They were commonly called "Higgins Boats" after the name of the inventor and owner of the factory.
Well Lake Mead wasn't flooded until 1938 after the dam was completed so that boat is no older than that but it could be one of the earliest shipwrecks because it is on the outskirts of the lake at the higher levels when the water was much higher so that probably puts it much earlier.
@4:20 With it having Phillips Head screws in it, this boat hasn't been down there since the 30's. More likely it is a boat from the late 60's or early 70's since as that is about when phillips head screws came out in large use. Phillips screws WERE invented in the early 30's but were used primarily in the car market at that time.
@@jaredharder8048 there's got to be someone doing some research, I would think. I thought for sure people would be popping up saying hey, that's my boat! 😀
that old one looks like its been out of the water for a very long time, longer than this recent low water. there are creosote bushes around it. that might help to date it to know how long its been since the water was that high. also cant be too too old because its full of Phillips head screws. I bet 1950' or 60's but still really cool.
What man makes... Man can take away... Did you see the National park put up signs starting at the year 2000 lake level going up to 2020 lake of levels. Saw them on RVerTV you tube videos of closed boat ramps @ Lake Meade
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the 30's didn't have stainless steels worm clamps, they had snap clamps. The 2 square pockets along the top of the keel may have been mast seats, and it looks like the gunwales may have charring from a fire.
Has anyone gone down to the exposed areas that used to be under water with a metal detector to look for lost jewelry. I’m sure there was a lot of rings, watches & pendants that fell into the water over the years.
That boat looked quite old that had been remodeled and restored at some point. There were square head nails typical to 1800s but also newer screws and if those mufflers were for that boat it would have been a modern engine added because they wouldn't have used mufflers in the 30s.
I know one thing I don't see any corps of engineers out there cleaning up that lake right now would be the best time they could get out there with skid steers and clean up all those wrecked boats tires barrels everything unless they know they just getting rid of it on purpose right now would be the best time to clean up
Phillips screws look em up. 1932. So…. It would of been built mid to late 30’s at the earliest. When did your ship sink? Can you find out when it was launched.
Not very old, it had Philips head screws. They where first used in 1937 but only came into general use after 1952 when the patent expired. So 50's onwards
It looks like the first boat was involved in fire and sank. There were wooden boats built in 60’s . Rumor has it Liberace crew sank his yacht out in middle. It probably has lots of goodies on it.
The engine blocks you keep finding are for holding down bodies until the rope rots and by then the gases have all escaped and so the victim will not float...
The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound And a wave broke over the railing And every man knew, as the captain did too, T'was the witch of November come stealin' The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait When the gales of November came slashin' When afternoon came it was freezin' rain In the face of a hurricane west wind
Technically PT boats were triple planked, not plywood. First two layers were diangle the outer layer was fore/aft . Only the decks were true plywood. 2 pieces right and left sides od the deck.
Great find that old boat, but its not really all that old, its loaded with exposed phillips head screws. "The credited inventor of the Phillips screw was John P. Thompson" who, in 1932, patented (#1,908,080) a recessed cruciform screw and in 1933, a screwdriver for it. Thumbs Up on your video,, Thanks
