AH-WR-0189

Kee-O-Mee

Motor Yacht · United States · Lost 1937 · Flathead Lake

A luxurious 1928 pleasure yacht burned and sank in Flathead Lake after a diesel refit, lying undiscovered for nearly eighty years until divers found her in 2016.

Captain of Record

Stryder Kibbe

AHR-1934

See Shipwreck on Map

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Interpretive Reconstruction, drawn to convey the vessel's era, type and general form. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

Kee-O-Mee was built in 1928 as a luxury fifty-four-foot pleasure boat for Kalispell businessmen John Sherman and Bert Saling, with four staterooms and hot and cold running water. In spring 1937 the owners installed a more powerful diesel engine, and on May 9, 1937, on one of the vessel's first voyages afterward, the engine room caught fire. Both men escaped by lifeboat as the boat burned to the waterline and sank in Somers Bay. The wreck lay undiscovered for nearly eighty years until divers located it in 64 feet of water in 2016 and recovered artifacts now displayed in Kalispell.

Vessel

Built: 1928
Builder: Not established
Yard: Not established
Material: Wood
Length: 54 ft
Beam: Not established
Tonnage: Not established
Propulsion: Originally gasoline engine; re-engined with a diesel in spring 1937
Owners: John Sherman and Bert Saling, Flathead Motor Sales Co.

Loss

Date: May 9, 1937
Cause: Fire
Location: Somers Bay, Flathead Lake
Water: Flathead Lake
Voyage: Somers, Montana
Cargo: Not established
Aboard: 2
Lives lost: 0
Master: Not established

The Wreck Today

Depth: 64 ft
Condition: Hull located and partially documented; artifacts recovered for museum display.
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: 2016
Protection: Not established

Position

Coordinates: 48.08° N 114.22° W
Accuracy: General area only
Nearest: Somers, Montana
Region: Flathead Lake

General area only: no separate GNIS feature exists for 'Somers Bay' itself, so this uses the USGS Geographic Names Information System coordinate for the populated place of Somers, on the shore of the bay named for it, where the wreck is reported to lie 'just past Somers Bay'; this is not a surveyed wreck position.

Evidence

Overall confidence: Documented (85/100)

Flathead Beacon, The Search for the Kee-O-Mee
Build history, 1937 fire, 2016 discovery.
Flathead Beacon, Underwater World
Fire cause, depth, diver's account.
Daily Inter Lake, Divers find historic houseboat in Somers Bay
Artifact recovery and museum exhibition.
USGS Geographic Names Information System — Somers, Flathead County, Montana
coordinate of Somers, the named place on Somers Bay, Flathead Lake