Huge piece of 19th century vessel washes ashore in Southwestern Ontario

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ERIEAU – A large section of a 19th-century vessel has washed up on the shore of Lake Erie in this lakeside community near Chatham.

Longtime resident Jeff Vidler, who is retired from the navy and past Erieau Harbour Authority manager, said he heard about the wreckage showing up on the shore behind a private cottage about a month ago.

After seeing the approximately 10-metre (30-foot) section of wreckage for himself, Vidler did some research and made calls to federal and provincial authorities, as well as academia, to try to learn more about its origins.

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“I knew right then and there that had to be something that had to be looked into,” he said of the excitement he felt when seeing the wreck for the first time.

Based on information he’s received, Vidler said the piece of wreckage is potentially from a schooner that may have been up to 270-feet (82-metres) long.

Noting Lake Erie is known as “the grave yard of the Great Lakes,” because it’s shallow with numerous shoals and reefs, Vidler said: “Trying to pinpoint one particular wreck, it would be a daunting task unless you could find the actual name of (the ship) on it.”

John O’Shea is an anthropology professor and curator of Great Lakes Archaeology at the University of Michigan. He said in an interview that what he can say about the vessel, based on photos received from Vidler, is limited without seeing it first-hand or being able to take some measurements.

But he noted the portion of the wreck in the photos he has seen is essentially the side of a vessel hull.

“The side broke off from the rest of the hull at the ‘turn of the bilge,’” O’Shea said. “This is where the shape of the hull transitions from a horizontal to vertical orientation, and is a particular weak spot on wooden vessels.”

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He said the visible frames are all doubled, and given the seeming size of the fasteners, it’s clear this was a larger vessel of several hundred tons. The size could be confirmed with some specific measurements of the fasteners and frames, he added.

“There is nothing in the photo to say it was definitely a sail or power-driven vessel, but it most likely has a construction date in the later nineteenth century,” O’Shea said.

Vidler said there are plans to go out on the lake in the spring to search with side-scan sonar to see if more of the ship can be found in the area.

O’Shea noted the portion of wreck that came ashore is curved and these hull sections “actually drift along the bottom with the current, much like the wing of an aircraft.”

He also said on Lake Huron, where he works, “there have been documented cases of the hull segments of 100-year-old wrecks moving just above the lake floor and taking out people’s boat docks.

“So the actual location of the wreck need not be anywhere near where this portion has come ashore,” he said.

The most common scenario is that a vessel runs aground and is subsequently broken up by wave action, O’Shea said. “The bilge portion of the vessel will often remain at the site of the grounding, while portions of the hull and superstructure are broken up and float away.”

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Viewing the wreckage as “a part of our naval history” that should be preserved, Vidler would like to see the piece salvaged before it’s reclaimed by the lake.

But he acknowledges this would be a huge task, estimating the section of wreckage weights four to five tons (up to 4,536 kilograms) and would require a tug and barge with a crane to do the job.

O’Shea said it’s costly and time consuming to conserve wrecks, so it’s probably not an option to retrieve it.

He suggests the wreckage should be thoroughly mapped and measured. He added this data can then be compared with wreckage in other locations and with historical documents describing wrecking events.

eshreve@postmedia.com

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