About CLUE

Cleveland Underwater Explorers, Inc. (CLUE) is a non-profit corporation whose membership includes divers, historians, and archaeologists who are dedicated to researching, locating, exploring, and documenting the shipwrecks and submerged cultural heritage of the Great Lakes with an emphasis on Lake Erie. CLUE is based in Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, on the southern shore of Lake Erie.


CLUE was founded by David VanZandt and Kevin Magee in 2001. Chief Researcher Jim Paskert joined the team in 2004 and Tom Kowalczk in 2007, then Rob Ruetschle joined in 2011, Ken Marshall in 2012 and Chris Kraska in 2023. These members form the core of the organization which also includes other associate members. The team consists of individuals skilled in many areas required for underwater exploration and survey including; archival research, Great Lakes history, Great Lakes ship construction styles and techniques, underwater search equipment operations and techniques, underwater archaeological techniques, mechanical and electrical engineering, and recreational and technical scuba diving.

The team predominantly uses Tom Kowalczk's boat Dragonfly based in Lakeside, Ohio and Rob Ruetschle's boat Scavenger from his homeport in Lorain. CLUE’s search equipment includes two Imagenex Model 872 Yellow Fin sidescan sonars, two dual-frequency Klein Model 595 converted to digital operation, and a Geometrics G-881 marine magnetometer to locate and identify submerged objects. The boats are also outfitted with GPS tracking/plotting equipment and several bottom sounders. CLUE has the capability of using its search equipment in a stand-alone configuration that allows search and survey operations from other platforms.