SCUBA & the Titanic
I've been a water baby ever since I can remember. My dad used to take me swimming in Lake Michigan at Simmons Beach in Kenosha. The water was 40 degrees but despite the fact I was turning blue, he'd have to drag me kicking and screaming out of the lake.
I was also fascinated with ships, so following swimming he'd take me to the harbor to see the ships that had come in.
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I couldn't tell you why I was so fascinated with ships. I just was, especially Titanic.
Having spent most of my childhood in the water, I guess it was only natural that in high school I got my advanced scuba diver's certification. Most divers start out a bit slow on their first open water dives. Not me, I went straight for diving the wreck of the SS Wisconsin.
On 29 October 1929, the Wisconsin left Chicago bound for Milwaukee. Under the command of Captain Dougal Morrison, the freighter was carrying passengers, automobiles, and machine tools. The ship ran into a storm and began taking on water, sinking around 7:10 pm. Rescue craft arrived 20 minutes later. Estimates of the number saved and lost vary widely, from 18 lost out of 26 aboard to 18 lost of 76 aboard. Estimates given around the time of the sinking give numbers of around 63-66 saved, 8-10 dead or missing. Sources agree the captain went down with the ship.
The wreck site is a popular location for historians, archaeologists and divers. It lies in 90 to 130 feet of water, 6.5 miles south-southeast of Kenosha. The shipwreck lies in 2 pieces - bow and stern.
Although visibility was horrible that day (I nearly smacked into the side of the ship mask first) I was hooked on shipwrecks.
I've always been fascinated with the sinking of the Titanic but never really understood why. I'd attend every Titanic event it was possible to attend, especially the Grand Hotel's Titanic
re-enactment weekend on Mackinac Island.
I loved dressing up in Edwardian garb of that era, seeing Titanic artifacts, listening to the guest speakers and especially the last night dinner that replicated that on Titanic the night she sank.
The weird thing was in every Titanic event I'd attend I'd draw the name of a passenger who went down on the ship.
Every...single...time.
Then one day quite unexpectedly a psychic friend of mine cleared up my fascination with the Titanic. I'd never said a word to her about my fascination with Titanic.
Suddenly she said "In a past life you were in a shipwreck! Your brother was traveling with you and both of you went down with the ship. I'm seeing a Swedish flag...I think you were Swedish?
You name was Johanna something. Last name starts with an 'A' I think. Patty? I think you were on the TITANIC!"
Hold the phone...WHAT?!!!
Curiosity got the better of me. I looked up the Titanic passenger manifest.
And what do I find?
My Swedish grandmother
My grandmother was from Sweden.
She emigrated on a ship to America, traveling with her brother - as Johanna had.
My grandmother originally settled in the same American town Johanna and her husband had.
Johanna's husband was in the dairy business. I still have cousins in Sweden that run a large dairy farm.
The synchronicities go on and on...
I know we have carry overs from past lives that bleed into our present life. This makes me wonder...is that why I could stand swimming in the cold waters of Lake Michigan?
Ultimately, I came to research the sinking of the "Titanic" in depth...and discovered the official story we were told was a pack of lies and that the ship that lies at the bottom of the Atlantic is actually the OLYMPIC. It was all an insurance fraud scam perpetrated by J.P. Morgan and Bruce Ismay that went horribly awry on them.
