Diving Lake Erie’s Treasured Past

“Wrecks are like underwater time capsules,” explains Georgann Wachter who, along with her husband Michael, has been exploring the wrecks of Lake Erie since the 1970s. There is no treasure such as gold or jewels in these wrecks. The treasure lies in the history that has been preserved by the cold fresh water of the lake. The Wachters bring those stories to the surface in their series of books on Lake Erie ’s shipwrecks. The fifth and latest is Erie Wrecks and Lights which tells of ships that went down in five of Lake Erie ’s biggest storms.

While the Wachters have been interested in the subject for decades, wreck diving is becoming an increasingly popular sport among avid SCUBA enthusiasts. Patrix Heschel, a course director with New Wave Dive Center in Port Clinton, Ohio, dives shipwrecks for fun and for the love of history. His favorite wreck dive is the convict ship, Success, located about a quarter mile off shore from the Burger King in Port Clinton. The ship was constructed of Burmese teak in the Far East and had a colorful history as a prisoner ship in Australia. It then was made into a floating wax museum on the Great Lakes and later caught fire and sank.

“I met a lady from California whose great grandfather was on the ship and she wanted to see it so I took her out there,” Heschel says of his first trip to the Success. Meeting people who have some connection to a ship adds to the fascination and enriches the stories behind the shipwrecks, he says.

Both Heschel and Wachter are members of the Maritime Archaeological Survey Team (MAST), a nonprofit group dedicated to the documentation of Ohio ’s underwater historic resources. Team members survey shipwreck sites, take pictures, do triangulations, and draw the wrecks mapping out the various parts of the ship for other divers to be able to identify. It is a painstakingly slow task but eventually MAST members hope to be able to have many of the 1,500 shipwrecks in Lake Erie registered as official archeological sites.

The largest wreck, a 440-foot steel freighter called the James Reed, sank after being rammed broadside in a fog by the steamer Ashcroft in 1944. It sank quickly trapping twelve of its crew below decks. Unfortunately, the Reed was later dynamited because it was obstructing a shipping channel. It now lays in pieces along the bottom.

On the very same day, another large ship, the F. E. Vigor, went down after being hit by an ore boat. All of the crew was rescued just before it rolled over on its starboard side and slipped beneath the surface. It lies at a depth of 90 feet in the central basin of the lake. Some of its six thousand pounds of sulphur can still be seen scattered around the ship.

One of the most popular Lake Erie dives is an easy one. Lying in just thirty-nine feet of water off the entrance to Mentor Lagoons in Ohio is the North Carolina. The 75-foot steel tug sits one and a half miles off shore and is marked with a buoy for divers to easily locate.

Diving the waters of Lake Erie, however, is not for the feint of heart. The water is cold requiring at least a 7mm wetsuit or a dry suit for warmth. Visibility varies depending upon location. At the shallower west end of the lake it can be as low as 6 to 20 feet because of wave action and algae growth mid to late summer. These conditions are challenging and Wachter says you find a shipwreck in this visibility by literally bumping into it. In the central basin visibility is about 40 feet and increases up to 100 feet at the east end of the lake near Erie, Pennsylvania, and Dunkirk, New York.

While the Wachters have explored more than 300 shipwrecks throughout the years, their latest discovery is a favorite. “A schooner, intact, with all the parts attached. It even has a brass bell on it and there are plates and dishes scattered about,” describes Georgann. The ship is mentioned in Erie Wrecks and Lights, but the location is not disclosed. The Wachters are taking some time to explore and research their treasure before sharing her story.

REFERENCES

Maritime Archaeological Survey Team—www.ohiomast.org
Patrix Heschel—www.patrixsscuba.com
Georgann and Michael Wachter—www.eriewrecks.com
Alphabetical listing and location of Lake Erie

Osprey Charters
Captain Jim Herbert
Westfield, NY
(716) 753-6565
www.osprey-dive.com

Discovery DiveCharters andTours
16975 Wildwood Drive (In Wildwood State Park)
Cleveland, OH
(216) 481-5771
www.discoverydive.com

Waruwanago boat Charters
Leamington, Ontario
(519) 562-6512
www.scubaont.com/waruwanago