Lake Ontario - Shipwrecks

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Discovery of an Early 1800’s Schooner in Lake Ontario

Oak Orchard, New York - An early 1800’s schooner, has been discovered in deep water off the southern shore of Lake Ontario near Oak Orchard / Point Breeze, New York. Shipwreck enthusiasts, Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville located the old schooner utilizing sophisticated side scanning sonar equipment.

More...
http://www.shipwreckworld.com/stories/376.aspx

Divers locate Coast Guard boat sunk in 1977

Ontario-On-The Lake, NY - The US Coast Guard boat, which sank in a storm December 1, 1977, has been located by local divers, Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville.

While on route from Oswego to Niagara, the 56-foot Coast Guard cable boat experienced 6-foot waves and winds of 50 mph as it approached Nine Mile Point on Lake Ontario. The boat, a converted landing craft (LCM) with an open deck, was taking water over the gunwale faster than the 3-man crew could pump it out. The Charlotte Coast Guard Station dispatched its motor lifeboat to the scene where it found the 50-ton cable boat listing to its port side. They removed the crew and took the boat in tow, but a wave parted the line and the cable boat sank several miles east of Nine Mile Point and offshore from the community of Ontario-on-the-Lake. It was reported that the US Coast Guard intended to salvage the sunken vessel the following week. The US Coast Guard website relating the historic details of their Charlotte Station also mentions that the boat was salvaged and returned to service.

Location

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http://www.shipwreckworld.com/stories/298.aspx


Discovery of a Pre-Civil War Era Schooner in Lake Ontario

Sodus Point, New York - The 152-year-old Canadian built schooner, Etta Belle, has been discovered in deep water off the southern shore of Lake Ontario near Sodus Point, New York. Shipwreck enthusiasts, Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville, located the schooner utilizing side scan sonar equipment.

The oak-hulled schooner, Etta Belle, foundered suddenly during calm weather in the early evening of September 3, 1873. The ship was on route from Little Sodus to Toronto, Canada, and was loaded with a full cargo of coal. The crew took to a small yawl and rowed over 8 miles to shore.

More...
http://www.shipwreckworld.com/stories/285.aspx

140 Year Old Steamer Discovered

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Pultneyville, New York –A 140 year old Canadian steamship Homer Warren has been discovered in deep water off the southern shore of Lake Ontario near Pultneyville, New York. Shipwreck enthusiasts, Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville, located the steamer by using side scan sonar equipment.
The Homer Warren was the oldest wooden straight deck bulk freighter in operation on the Great Lakes when it foundered in a heavy gale on October 28, 1919. The ship was on route from Oswego, New York, to Toronto, Canada, with a crew of nine men, all of whom were lost in the storm.

The Homer Warren was originally built in 1863 and modified in 1901 after being partially destroyed by a fire. The ship was 178 feet in length and would typically transport large quantities of lumber, coal, or grain. During the final voyage of the steamer the cargo was “reported” to be 500 tons of coal.

Approximate Location

More...
http://www.shipwreckworld.com/stories/209.aspx


The Roberval sinks near Oswego

The Canadian Steamer Roverval sank in a violent storm on Lake Ontario near Oswego, NY in 1916 with a cargo of lumber. Seven crew members survive by making a raft out of the floating lumber.

more...
http://www.dreamscape.com/pchurch/sonar/robstry.htm


The David W. Mills

At 5:30 a.m. on August 11, 1919, the 202-foot steamship David W. Mills slammed into Ford Shoal, four and a half miles west of Oswego. The 925-ton vessel was the victim of freakish circumstances.

Immense forest fires in Canada, combined with late summer weather, blanketed Lake Ontario in a fog so thick you could see only a few feet. Visual navigation was impossible.

More...
http://www.dreamscape.com/pchurch/scuba/mills.html

The Harborfest Houseboat

Oswego has a four-day festival every year during the last full weekend in July. The event is called Harborfest. Most people remember the 1993 Harborfest as the year "Today Show" Weatherman Willard Scott did his morning weather reports from Oswego. But most local divers remember it as the year they got a new local shipwreck.

Harborfest '93 was windy. Northwest winds were kicking up eight-foot waves on Lake Ontario. A 32-foot houseboat was out on the lake that day. The little, calm-water vessel didn't stand a chance, and it foundered in 32 feet of water just east of Oswego Harbor. The two men aboard were rescued by the Coast Guard.

During the first winter the vessel was submerged the cabin was swept away by ice and now lies in peices to the east. All that remains is the hull and outside railing. The houseboat is the new home of plenty of bass and perch.

The real name of the vessel is all but forgotton. Local divers began refering to it as the "Harborfest Houseboat." The name stuck after it appeared in a newspaper's trivia article in 1996.

The Tugboat MARY KAY

Constructed in 1957, the MARY KAY was a 55-foot, 35-ton tugboat powered by twin Murphy diesel engines. In 1988, the MARY KAY was purchased and re-fit by Salvage and Demolition Inc. of North Weymouth, Massachusetts. On September 21, 1988, the MARY KAY left Rochester, NY to begin her long journey to her new home in Boston.

Just west of Oswego harbor, two 9-foot waves crashed over her stern and filled the engine room. She listed and sank quickly. Aboard were the captain and engineer. Responding to a short radio call for help and phone calls from witnesses on land, the US Coast Guard cutter from Oswego headed out into the storm and rescued the two men. The City of Oswego Police Department awarded the USCG crew certificates of recognition for bravery.

More...
http://www.dreamscape.com/pchurch/scuba/marykay.html

The Cormorant

The Cormorant was built in 1941 as the DDA 43 for Merritt Chapman and Scott of New York, in 1949 she was renamed to the Russell 4 and sold to the Newton Creek Towning Company of New York. Then Merrit, Chapman and Scott repurchased her and renamed her the Cormorant. After doing some work in the St. Lawrence river the Cormorant was swamped by a large wave sinking her. Her crew hung on to a tractor tire before being rescued.
Location of 2 1/2 miles north of Oswego harbour, Oswego New York

More...
http://www.northerntechdiver.com/galler ... morant.php

Ariadne (Schooner) Sinks in Mexico Bay

More...
http://www.ocmuseum.org/shipwrecks/ariadne.asp



This one looks interesting:

http://www.sea-viewdiving.com/shipwreck ... masted.htm
champy1013
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Lake Superior still has shipwrecks strewn about on shore - especially up on the UP of Michigan in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, by Au Sable Light:
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and there's some cool cliffs with crazy rocks and trees that grow strange:
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There's a bunch of waterfalls that flow directly into the lake, visible only by boat, but luckily for us, there were some inland as well:
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tjconheady
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imagine going for a swim and then coming across these below your feet...creepy
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081213/ap_ ... discovered
Explorers ID 19th-century schooner in Lake Ontario
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Sat Dec 13, 10:02 am ET
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Two explorers conducting underwater surveys of Lake Ontario have uncovered an aquatic mystery — a rare 19th-century schooner sitting upright 500 feet under the waves.
Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville located the 55-foot long dagger-board ship unexpectedly this fall using deep scan sonar equipment off the lake's southern shore, west of Rochester.
The ship is the only dagger-board known to have been found in the Great Lakes. Kennard said vessels of this type were used for a short time in the early 1800s. The dagger-board was a wood panel that could be extended through the keel to improve the ship's stability. The dagger-boards could be raised when the schooner entered a shallow harbor, allowing the boat to load and unload cargo in locations that would not otherwise be accessible to larger ships.
The shipwreck was found upright and in remarkable condition considering it had plunged more than 500 feet to its resting place on the bottom, the men said.
The schooner's origin is a mystery so far.
The name of the schooner is unknown and there are no documented accounts of a dagger-board schooner sinking in Lake Ontario.
The explorers suspect the schooner was being converted to a barge or other sailing craft by its owners and perhaps broke free from its moorings in the ice or during a violent storm and was carried far out on the lake before it eventually sank.
The men found it on the very last survey run of the season. A faint image of something protruding from the bottom showed up at the very edge of the display screen, and another run was made to obtain a better image and the position of the object.
The two explorers returned to the site two weeks later and used a remote operated vehicle to explore and photograph the shipwreck.
It appeared from the video survey of the shipwreck that the schooner had been stripped of all useable items such as anchors, iron fittings, cabin with contents, and tiller, Kennard said.
During the past several months, the explorers have been seeking help from Great Lakes maritime historians to learn more about the schooner.
The dagger-board schooner is one of the older ships discovered in Lake Ontario and the Great Lakes.
In May 2008, Kennard and Scoville discovered the British warship HMS Ontario, which was lost in 1780. The Ontario is the oldest shipwreck ever found in the Great Lakes and the only British warship of this period still in existence in the world.
There are estimated to have been over 4,700 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, including about 550 in Lake Ontario.
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us. ~Henry David Thoreau
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Matt
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I love these discoveries! I just wish they would post some coordinates (but I understand why not).
I managed to find a pic.
Lake Ontario Schooner
Lake Ontario Schooner
schooner.JPG (43.23 KiB) Viewed 10677 times
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