Inside the effort to build Lake Union’s underwater archive of shipwrecks

SEATTLE — Beneath Lake Union lies what researchers describe as an “underwater archive” of Seattle’s maritime history, and a growing effort using sonar and robotic submersibles is attempting to create the most comprehensive visual documentation yet of the dozens of shipwrecks scattered across the lakebed.

Over the past several weeks, ocean engineer Phil Parisi and his team have used sonar equipment and ROVs to visually confirm wrecks across the lake, part of a broader effort to identify, classify and republish data on vessels that have remained largely undocumented for decades.

“It’s giving us the final confidence, the final say of, yes, this is what’s underwater in our own backyard,” Parisi said during a recent expedition.

The work builds on a high-resolution sonar survey that previously identified nearly 100 underwater “targets” in Lake Union, including barges, work boats, sailboats and debris. Historians previously told KING 5 that roughly half are believed to be shipwrecks.

Until now, many of those sites existed primarily as top-down sonar images.

“Right now all we have is these kind of high-level top-down views of what’s in there,” Parisi said. “We’re classifying them, getting this organized, and we’re gonna republish this data set.”

The recent push focused on visually confirming sites one by one using an ROV nicknamed “Finn,” allowing the team to determine whether sonar signatures were actual wrecks or just debris. Over several days, the group investigated roughly 25 sites and confirmed about 20 shipwrecks.

In one dive, the team identified a registration sticker still attached to a wrecked vessel.

“This was last registered in 1985, presumably didn’t register in 1986 because it went down,” Parisi joked after the discovery. “That’s a huge win.”

Parisi said the project is about more than simply counting wrecks.

“Seeing that there were wrecks in our own backyard that we haven’t been able to fully identify and understand what’s really there just spoke to me on a personal level,” Parisi said. “This city’s got so many amazing things. The development’s changing so much around us. It’s growing. We got new things coming up all over the place, but let’s not forget what’s in our own backyard underwater in a lake that we use every day.”

Nathaniel Howe, director of the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society, previously told KING 5 that the wrecks offer a unique record of Seattle’s maritime and industrial history, much of which has disappeared from the shoreline itself.

“One thing I loved about that project is how it engaged the public with the history of the lake, and the fascination that comes with shipwrecks — not in Hollywood films, but right here in the middle of our city,” Howe said.

Howe said Parisi’s use of robotics also avoids some of the damage and disruption associated with more invasive “treasure hunting” operations.

Many of the wrecks are not famous vessels, but work boats, barges and abandoned craft tied to Seattle’s industrial growth around Lake Union. Previous dives in the lake documented vessels linked to the city’s fishing and wartime industries, including shrimp boats that once supplied Ivar’s restaurants and World War II-era minesweepers.

Parisi said the work also changes how people think about the lake itself.

“You look at water and its reflection often, but we don’t think about what’s underneath,” he previously told KING 5. “It’s out of sight, out of mind.”

For now, the survey work continues site by site as researchers try to complete what Parisi calls the underwater archive of Lake Union.

“The study of Lake Union’s wrecks is just beginning,” Howe said.

Editor’s notes: 

All underwater footage was provided courtesy of Phil Parisi and shipwreckcity.org. 

This story was made possible with the help of KING 5 photojournalist Nick Goldring.