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Members:
I have received a message from a friend of mine who is a member of your
mailing list. It was a question about Pennsylvania Divers looting
Canadian wrecks. It read:
"Heard some Pennsylvanian divers were chased off the shipwreck "Ohio" by
Canadian authorities late September. The divers were using lift bags to
remove the anchor(s?). The Ohio is off Long Point, Lake Erie in 160 ft.
Any details?"
I have been diving quite a bit off Long Point this year and just
happened to be out there that day this incident happened. We arrived in
the afternoon after another dive charter had been there in the morning.
A friend that was with us had actually arranged the dive charter but
wanted to dive with us in my boat that day. He was in radio contact
with the dive charter boat during the day and we heard about the events
in the morning first hand.
A small faster boat came out to the dive site first and was to meet the
larger dive charter vessel with a group of divers from Burlington. When
the couple in the smaller, faster boat arrived, they found an American
registered pleasure craft anchored at the site. The divers had lift
bags blown up on the surface of the water indicating they were
attempting to lift something out of the water. The couple from Port
Dover took pictures and wrote down the registration number on the
vessel. The divers from the U.S. quickly gathered their lift bags out
of the water and left the site heading back to the U.S. side of the
lake.
When the larger dive charter boat arrived and they all conducted their
sport dive on the wreck they found cables and shackles attached to a bow
anchor on the wreck. Putting two and two together was easy and the
folks from the Canadian side notified the Ontario Provincial Police.
I recently spoke to the couple who took the photos and they said an
investigation is taking place. The photos show a small fibreglass
pleasure craft (20-24 feet) at the site. The boat was not large enough
to lift an anchor up out of the water. These are large anchors. What
were they up to? Whatever it may be it is certainly illegal. If caught
transporting archeological artifacts (which this is) across the border
would mean very serious charges (loss of boat, gear, everything).
Canadian customs officers are not tolerant of this kind of thing at all.
The wreck that is in question is well known on the U.S. side of Lake
Erie as the "Arches". The wreck's identity as the "Ohio" is
questionable as the "Ohio" sank from a boiler explosion and this wreck
was video taped showing the boiler fully intact with no sign of an
explosion to the deck or hull. I think they best still nickname it the
"Arches". Dive charter vessels from Erie and other ports come over to
Canadian waters to dive the wreck. Just recently the whereabouts of
this wreck and many others have become known to divers on the Canadian
side of the lake and more dive charters will be frequenting these
sites. This will provide a good means of policing the area against
looting wrecks.
Another wreck known as the "Crowsnest" that is visited from dive
charter vessels from the U.S. side. Divers now know of this vessel also
here in Canada. We like to call it the "Tiller" wreck because of the
tiller operated steering. The wreck's mast that lies to the side of the
wreck has a crosstree on it, not an actual crowsnest. This wreck is
very close to the U.S./ Canadian border and is in Canadian waters and in
the shipping channel. Many more dive trips will also police this site
as well. I would like to say that the people who like to pilfer should
beware and maybe realize the consequences of being caught crossing the
border with archeological artifacts. These older vessels ("Tiller"
wreck, 1830's) hold an immense amount of archeological information that
needs to be left right where it is. There is no gold here, just the
history of our marine heritage from yesteryear. If pilfered, then we
cannot study this vital information to our marine shipping past. It
also spoils the adventure and intrigue for the sport divers who venture
out to these sites to exercise their right to sport-dive and see a
glimpse of the past.
I hope nobody thinks my E-mail here is to slam the U.S. diving
community. I am only making the facts available to everyone. There is
always a bad apple in each bunch. I would imagine that if more
Canadians explored these wrecks, then the same incidents might have
happened from a Canadian vessel.
I personally think it is great that Canada and the U.S. can both share
in this vast amount of marine history that is lying at the bottom of the
lakes. I hope that divers from both Canada and the U.S. can conduct
themselves in an appropriate way and just look at our marine heritage
that is on the bottom. By doing this, the dive charter businesses will
have a great opportunity to show the many divers in both countries how
the two countries conducted their shipping industries in the 1800's and
grew together.
Dan Lindsay
<<seaview@ic*.ne*>>
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