(gulls crying) - No one knew where the car ferry from Milwaukee was.

It disappeared in October of 1929.

It headed out.

It got three miles out of port.

And it headed north into 40, 50 mile an hour winds.

And it was never seen again.

(distorted melancholy music) - We went, and we were looking specifically at archeological evidence on the bottom so that we could answer that very question of how the ship went down.

Many people do feel that when you mentioned the name "Car Ferry," that it was designed to transport automobiles across, but these particular vessels were designed to be able to roll sets of rail cars aboard and transport them across.

They were owned by the individual railroad companies.

And what we discovered was that the rail cars had broken loose.

There were a number of rail cars that were off the tracks that were sideways within the hull.

So when those cars loosened and started riding around within the hull and the waves, one broke through the side of the hall, pushing it out.

And that eventually led to the sinking of the ship.

So much water came in.

- It's like a war zone.

It's just a big, on the outside, it's starting to cave in on itself and stuff like that, and you see torn apart rail cars and you see torn apart metal and sheet metal.

And the bow is kind of starting to separate from the rest of the ship.

And then a ways off of the bow section is the pilot house which is still standing on the bottom.

You can still see the words "Milwaukee," written on it.

(scuba regulator bubbling and cycling) - There's always this conflict as to how many people were lost.

And because there were no survivors, there was no one to interview, really.

To be able to address how many people were actually aboard.

And really because some people didn't report, because they didn't feel that the ship was actually going to go out that day.

So there's really no way of telling exactly how many people were lost, but we know that it was a quite substantial disaster in Wisconsin history.

(gulls crying) - One of the few visible signs of the tragic was a lifeboat, in addition to some bodies, and one of the lifeboats was found with four of the sailors with their life jackets on.

So it tells you that they were able to get to a lifeboat but that the conditions were so rough that they just weren't able to survive.

(microfilm reader advances) - Amongst the debris in the lifeboat was a message case.

And inside the message case was a note, sort of a note in a bottle.

These message cases were standard issue to vessels of the time, and that indicated the exact time of loss of the ship.

Because the note was written, and on the note, it said, "This is the in the hand of the purser."

It was substantiated that it was on the letterhead of the Grand Trunk Line, and so it was authenticated.

(scuba regulator bubbling and cycling)