William Rend

3D Model

The 288 ft wooden steamer William Rend was built in 1888 as the George G. Hadley. Minnesota divers will recogize the George Hadley as the ship that collided with whaleback Thomas Wilson in 1902 outside Duluth Harbor sinking the Wilson and killing nine of its crew. The Hadley was beached and later refloated, repaired, renamed the William Rend and returned to service. In 1915 it was cut down to a barge and served as such until in 1917 when while loaded with limestone it sprang a leak and sank in shallow water near Alpena, MI in Lake Huron. Attempts to refloat it failed. Today both the Thomas Wilson and the William Rend are recreational dive sites. The Thomas Wilson lies in 65 ft of water outside Duluth Harbor and the William Rend aka George Hadley lies badly deteriorated in 17 ft of water 1.5 miles from the Thunder Bay River mouth in the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The model was created from 2,517 images shot in ten ft of visibility with the camera mounted on a DPV.