Wreck of the Leith-built Gunilda revealed 270 ft below the waves

IT was built as a rich man’s plaything but sank through his folly and has rested for more than a century at the bottom of one of Canada’s great lakes.

But now fresh pictures of the Leith-built Gunilda have revealed the astonishing level of detail preserved in the wreck 107 years after she slipped beneath the waves.

The 200ft Gunilda was made for the affluent New Yorker William L Harkness in 1897 to sail as a pleasure craft on the waters of Lake Superior. But his failure to hire a local pilot doomed the vessel as she struck rocks during a voyage in 1911, and sank before a rescue tug could arrive.

Diver Becky Kagan Schott and her team went 270 feet down to reach the wreck’s resting place, and found it remains almost as it did when it sank.

Ms Schott, 35, a professional underwater photographer, camerawoman and diving instructor, said the dangerous dive was something for which they had planned carefully.

The Philadelphian adventurer had only 25 minutes with the ship, and described a “haunting” experience.

She said: “Visiting it was really like going back in time. I’ve never seen anything like it in all my years of shipwreck diving.

“For me it was almost surreal being there. I’d dreamed of seeing this shipwreck and it took years of experience both in diving and photography to be able to safely capture the images I saw in my mind.

“Peering inside windows to see a piano still in place or a card table and chairs next to a fireplace with a clock hanging above it and the galley with gold rimmed china still sitting on the shelf is pretty spectacular.”

She said that no light from the surface reaches the wreck, which lies in frigid waters, and this may have added to its state of preservation. The team had to coordinate perfectly to photograph the wreck, and rely on lights they took down with them.

Ms Schott said: “I personally love the shot of the piano inside with light coming through the window as if she were sailing on the surface again; I think it’s a haunting image.

“Many of my shots could not be accomplished without an excellent team.”

„ The inside of cabins of Gunilda have been remarkably preserved in the cold waters of Lake Superior.

„ The ship looks almost exactly the same as the day it sank.

„ The Gunilda was built by Ramage and Ferguson in 1897.

„ The lights give a haunting effect.