Trained divers of the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association have been investigating and photographing the Rosinco wreck since 1998. Due to Lake Michigan's cold fresh water, the Rosinco's hull, deck, and deckhouse are structurally intact and exceptionally well preserved.

The wreck is embedded in the clay bottom, with the bow rising approximately eight to nine feet above the bottom and the stern rising roughly five feet. A review of historic photographs and underwater video footage, combined with the knowledge that the Rosinco was built with a five-foot draft, suggests that perhaps five to six feet of the wreck is embedded below the lake bottom. Consequently, much of the vessel is exposed and accessible, and the wreck will yield substantial archaeological information relating to vessel's engineering and construction.   Moreover, the buried portion of the wreck is presumably better preserved than that which is exposed, offering even greater archaeological potential.

The Rosinco's windlass drum, used to raise and lower the anchor.  (Photo courtesy of Bradley Friend.)

At the bow, the vessel's deck remains virtually unchanged. The windlass and associated fittings are well preserved and are the largest artifacts among a collection of intact deck cleats, chocks, scuppers, two hawse pipes, and an exposed chain locker. The wooden deck, presumably laid in teak, is intact and its seams are clearly visible beneath a light sheen of silt.

Lost to looters, two portholes are missing from the Rosinco's deck cabin.  (Photo courtesy of Bradley Friend.)

At the cutwater, a copper emblem depicting a pair of wings is easily discernable and indicative of the yacht's elaborate design. Two forward-facing portholes are missing from the deckhouse, and a heavy, small mesh commercial fishing net is tangled in the wreck's starboard side deck rail and has collapsed several feet of railing.