After nearly 3 years of hard work our efforts are finally paying off, and in a big way. We have retained the services of renowned Marine Surveyor Joe Lombardi, who is known for doing work on many historic vessels such as the Battleship Texas, Cruiser Olympia, SS United States, Whaleback Meteor and many many others. We will be moving ahead with an aggressive schedule later this month to get the ship inspected inside and out to determine the vessels structural and historic integrity. While we know many things have been changed, rebuilt, or upgraded over the last century, we also know a great deal has not been altered. We wish to find out several things, for example we can determine if the years have been kind to the Ford, and if the ship is even in good enough condition to be saved, much less towed a thousand miles to a new home and berthed safely as a museum ship in Alpena, Michigan. The survey will likely take several days and include every part of the ship from the masts, down to the bilge. As we get more information and news on the survey we will continue to pass them along!