Members of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Warsaw Police and Warsaw Fire Department dive teams attempted to raise two sunken boats on Sechrist Lake today. (Photo and video by Stacey Page)

Divers of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, the Warsaw Police Department and the Warsaw Fire Department were on Sechrist Lake in the Barbee Chain of Lakes today attempting to raise two sunken vessels. Unfortunately, the operation was not a success.

Cpl. John Engle of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources was heading up the dive team training, which focused on locating and recovering the two boats that had sunk in about 50 feet of water. “The one boat has been there a very long time. Whatever we tried to hook to it wasn’t stable enough. It’s probably going to be impossible to lift,” Engle said of the first boat they located.

The team made every effort to bring the second boat to the surface today, but the eye bolt the divers attached the lift pillow to broke from the boat, leaving it setting on the bottom. “That’s all for today,” Cpl. Engle said of the training, noting the team will have to use sonar to again locate the exact position of the sunken boat and mark it with a buoy. When the lift pillow came to the surface, it also snagged the buoy anchor bringing it to the top.

If the boat is ever recovered, Cpl. Engle said it will be taken to the DNR’s abandoned boat lot in Syracuse. The DNR does its best to located the rightful owners who are then asked to retrieve the vessels.