EC Wisconsin News

Renowned diver/photographer to open exhibit at Maritime Museum

A five-time Emmy Award-winning underwater cameraman, photographer and technical diver will have her work on exhibit at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc March 16 through November 6.

Becky Kagan Schott is the co-owner of Liquid Productions Inc., a professional video production company specializing in filming challenging underwater environments. The diver is known for images she captures in the Arctic and Antarctic, and other exciting locations all over the world, but she says her biggest passion is capturing images of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. In July of 2022, she visited vessels resting near Two Rivers, including the Vernon and the Rouse Simmons.

The Vernon sank in 1887 with almost 50 lives lost when it was swamped with water in a violent storm. Only one survived. Haunting images of its cargo, bunks, engine, anchors on the bow, massive rudder and scroll work were captured by Schott.

A vessel known famously as “The Christmas Tree Ship,” the Rouse Simmons, was a three-masted 124-foot-long schooner that sunk carrying a large cargo of Christmas trees bound for Chicago. A violent storm caused it to founder off Two Rivers in 1912. No one survived. Schott filmed it as it now sits, upright in 160 feet of frigid water with sticks the only remnants of the trees that were never delivered.

The Maritime Museum exhibit, Bringing Shipwrecks to Life, features 50 of Schott’s Great Lakes images, interactive photogrammetry models to explore, and 3D printed models. The diver will be at the museum for a special event April 29.

Original source can be found here.