WRECKommendations

If We Make It ‘til Daylight

The Story of Frank Mays

As told to Pat and Jim Stayer and Tim Juhl

Jim and Pat Stayer are very good friends of Wreck Diving Magazine and, for more than 34 years, have been underwater filmmakers, lecturers, presenters, and educators, producing over 70 programs and documentaries related to diving and the undersea world. They are also great story tellers. For If We Make It ‘til Daylight The Story of Frank Mays, they partnered with fellow educator and wreck diver Tim Juhl to tell the story of a Great Lakes tragedy and personal survival.

The Great Lakes, with its violent winter storms and treacherous waters, has long been a dangerous place for mariners, with approximately 6,000 ships littering her bottom and 30,000 lives lost since the 1700s, creating an underwater playground for wreck divers and wreck hunters. In recent years, modern technology has eased some of the danger but the Great Lakes hold many stories of cruel storms a 639-foot-long, Great Lakes freighter that broke up in a savage storm on Lake Michigan on November 18, 1958, is one of these tragedies. There were 35 sailors on board the the night she went down and only two sailors survived her sinking.