When Jitka Hanakova, 38, looks out at Lake Michigan, she doesn’t see sunrises and sailboats. Instead, she imagines what lies beneath the water’s surface. An estimated 170 shipwrecks rest within 5 square nautical miles of Milwaukee’s shore – meaning customers of her dive charter business, Shipwreck Explorers, needn’t go far to experien
ce the eeriness and beauty of a vessel long lost to the deep. A native of the Czech Republic, Hanakova moved to Milwaukee in 1999 for a job at a financial firm, and, having no scuba experience, only curiosity, found someone to take her diving in Lake Michigan. Within six years, she was captain of a diving charter, and by 2008, one of the founders of Shipwreck Explorers, which specializes in leading divers to such “sunken museums” as the A.A. Parker.
A wooden steamer, the Parker foundered in a fierce gale on Lake Superior in 1903, splintered into four pieces and spilled its contents onto the northern lake’s frigid bottom. “We found cans of food still stacked in the galley, pots and dishes, even a small revolver,” Hanakova says. “You can imagine Capt. White dropping it as he and his crew leapt into the lifeboat.” Now lying at a depth of 200 feet, the Parker exemplifies why divers come to the Great Lakes from across the globe: The fresh, cold water ensures the preservation of wrecks, unlike saltwater, which quickly erodes wood and metal. And because of invasive zebra and quagga mussels, Lake Michigan’s depths are surprisingly clear.
“Diving is almost like a drug,” says Hanakova, who in person is slender and spirited. “You become immune to the rush of it, and it becomes about finding new things.” For her, the progression from recreational to technical, ice and cave diving came naturally. Then the desire for the unknown led to hunting for undiscovered shipwrecks. In 2010, she discovered the L.R. Doty, a 291-foot steamer that sank south of Milwaukee in 1898. Searchers had been scouring the lake for decades, and now a woman, in a business traditionally dominated by men, had ended the hunt. Hanakova scouts for shipwrecks using sonar and then specializes in taking experienced divers down to see them firsthand. Her partner in Shipwreck Explorers, Capt. Dave Sutton, also conducts advanced training for “rebreather” equipment, which allows divers to recycle air and venture to greater depths.
Rick Richter, an underwater videographer and longtime diving partner, says Hanakova is “determined, focused, highly trained and calm when facing difficulties.”
But where does this explorer go to push her limits? She smiles. “My partner, Dave, a longtime experimental aircraft pilot,” she says, “is teaching me how to fly.”
