July 2006 - the proposed
trailways 
October, 2005 -
Map to Ohio shipwrecks in works
Officials try to promote Lake Erie sites while avoiding
land conflicts
Associated Press
KELLEYS ISLAND
- When state officials tried to mark several Lake Erie shipwreck
sites as preserves two years ago, they tussled with property owners over land
rights.
Now the state, lake historians and underwater archaeologists are hoping to
mark four of the lake's zones as ``underwater trailways.'' The routes would
guide divers to historic shipwrecks without parceling off properties.
``The trailways idea is to promote Lake Erie, hopefully without making people
uncomfortable,'' said Constance Livchak, supervisor of the Division of Geologic
Survey with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. ``It's not a boundary,
where there's a box. A trailway is more of a guide from one shipwreck to the
next.''
Lake Erie has at least 1,500 shipwrecks, many dating back to the late 1800s
and early 1900s, when shipping traffic there was heavier. About 600 of those
wrecks are in Ohio, said Chris Gillchrist, executive director of the Great Lakes
Historical Society.
ODNR is vying for a three-year, $220,000 grant from the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration to start the mapping plan. If the grant goes through,
the state will add $63,000 to the project's budget.
The leader on the project is Dave Kelch, an associate professor and district
specialist with Ohio State University's Sea Grant Extension program.
He said he hopes to publish a 16- to 20-page guide to shipwrecks in four Lake
Erie zones. The brochure will include photographs, historical details and
coordinates that will allow divers to locate the sites with global positioning
equipment.
He also wants to set up a Web site with virtual dives for surfers who don't
want to get their feet wet.
The plan is based on a Wisconsin program that maps out dozens of shipwrecks
in Lakes Michigan and Superior.
``There's a lot of support and a lot of interest in the maritime history of
the Great Lakes,'' said Keith Meverden, a Wisconsin underwater archaeologist.
The expense of documenting each shipwreck's location and remains is high,
said Gillchrist, so putting together an exhaustive database would be nearly
impossible.
``What we're striving for is a representation of the diversity of boats,'' he
said, ``so that as people go through these trails, they understand that
passenger boats and other work boats were subject to the same forces of
nature.''
The Division of Geologic Survey is using sonar equipment to learn more about
Ohio's wreck sites, Livchak said during an exploration of a 1911 shipwreck off
Kelleys Island.
February, 2005 Submerged Lands Advisory Council - During the previous session of the Ohio General
Assembly, a bill was passed that sunsetted a number of government advisory
boards. Among those was the Submerged Land Advisory Council for the Ohio Coastal
Management Program. As of January 1, 2005, the Submerged Lands Advisory Council
no longer exists. To ensure the functions of the former council are not lost, in
November 2004 the Coastal Resources Advisory Council unanimously voted to create
the Submerged Historical and Geological Resources committee. The committee,
similar to the former Council will focus on shipwrecks and other underwater
historic preservation efforts
January, 2005 - In 2005 MAST will
for the first time have grant money from ODNR Coastal management to moor 6
wrecks in Ohio waters. The wrecks moored will be the steamers Sand Merchant,
Queen of the West, Morning Star and Sarah Sheldon,
the tug Admiral and the schooner
barge Dundee.
August 19, 2004 - excerpts from the meeting minutes of the
Ohio Coastal Resources Advisory Council at Stone Laboratory, Gibraltar Island,
Put-in-Bay
Taskforce Reports
Application Review Taskforce
– Mr. Hayes said there was no report.
Legislation – The legislation is currently inactive.
Underwater Preservation – Mr. Hayes said there is a desire to
protect the underwater historical, geological and botanical sites and some
people fear that a major marina will be built over a popular shipwreck just off
the north shore of Kelleys Island. Mr. Mackey said the issue of historical
underwater preservation is also being discussed by the Submerged Lands Advisory
Council. Mr. Goudreau said he is a member of the Great Lakes Historical Society
and they have a strong desire to work with the Office of Coastal Management and
their advisory councils.
April 27, 2004 - excerpts from the minutes of the Submerged
Lands Advisory Council meeting.
III. Underwater Preserves
Dave Mackey reported that there was no change in the status of
any attempt to establish an underwater preserve in Lake Erie. After Kelleys
Island withdrew support for a Kelleys Island Preserve, three public meetings
were held to solicit public opinion about a proposed alternate site for a
preserve in the Western Basin. At the meetings, which took place at Kelleys
Island, Put-in-Bay and in Port Clinton, a number of knowledgeable people had
negative comments. Divers and charter captains stated that the proposed site had
muddy bottoms, low visibility and few if any wrecks; political subdivisions
didn’t want such preserves. The general impression was that people just don’t
want a box in the lake. Therefore, ODNR has taken no further action to pursue an
underwater preserve. The council discussed the value of informational pamphlets
and buoys in the absence of underwater preserves. Dave Mackey stated that the
Shipwreck Center should be able to support a project to produce pamphlets
providing information on shipwrecks.
August 7, 2003 - Comments by
former mayor William “Bill" Minshall, 519 Titur Road, Kelleys Island, Ohio at
the Coastal Resources Advisory
Council Meeting,
Ohio Revised Code section
1506.31 rules establishing Lake Erie submerged lands preserves: access, gives
two unelected officials, the Director of Natural Resources and the Director of
the Ohio Historical Society, complete control of the preserve and all the waters
within it by the adoption of rules under chapter 119 of the Revised Code. The
preserve area extends from the lake bed to the surface. An area may be set aside
today as a preserve for shipwrecks, however, tomorrow comes with new directors
and new rules.
O.R.C. 1506.31 provides that in
addition to shipwrecks, “Other features of archaeological, historical,
recreational, ecological, environmental, educational, scenic, scientific, or
geological value,” may be given preserve status. Today’s shipwreck preserve,
with the help of one or two scientific studies, will become tomorrow’s
environmentally scientific area off limits to almost all but scientific
researchers. Florida, California and Hawaii have experienced this exact
circumstance. To say it will not happen here is foolhardy....... end of Mr.
Minshall's comments.
Mr.
Mackey said OCM (Ohio Coastal
Management)
wants to follow up with additional investigations with some of the people who
are knowledgeable regarding these issues particularly the dive groups,
archeologists and others. Mr. Mackey said the term preserve might be one of the
problems that exist with the name “underwater preserve” because some folks think
there will be restrictions................
Mr.
Mackey said the ODNR has made it clear that there will be no restrictions
on activities in the preserve that are currently allowed by Ohio law............
Mr.
Mackey said of the comments against a preserve, most said they had concerns
about possible future restrictions..............
Mr.
Hayes said Ohio is the only Great Lakes state without an underwater preserve and
in Michigan, small communities are begging for the preserve because of the
benefit to ecotourism. Mr. Hayes said it is not likely that the Division of
Wildlife would ever propose taking fishing in Lake Erie’s western basin away.
April, 2003 - New boundaries established for the proposed Lake
Erie Islands Underwater Preserve raised some concerns at recent meetings. The
proposed area includes parts of the lake north of Kelleys Island to the Canadian
border, and west from the Kelleys Island shoal to the east side of South Bass
Island. The preserve is meant to foster archaeological and historical research
and educate the public about Ohio's maritime history.
May, 2001 - New underwater preserve containing 39 sunken ships is proposed
for the Kelleys Island area in western Lake Erie.
Ohio Department of Natural Resources officials are considering
the state's first underwater shipwreck preserve in the waters surrounding
Kelleys Island. An Ohio law passed in 1991 allows for 10 percent of the 3,277
square miles of Lake Erie submerged lands owned by the state to be turned into
preserves.
In related activities, MAST (Ohio's Maritime Archeology Survey
Team) headed by Prof. Charles Herdendorf will begin their third underwater
archeological mapping project on the Str. F.H. Prince, located within the
proposed preserve. MAST has completed the site surveys of two other ships, the
Str. Adventure and another site located adjacent to the Adventure determined
to be a second shipwreck during the mapping process. The wreck is believed to
the W.R. Hanna. MAST's mapping of the Prince is being done in
conjunction with Ohio Archeology Week, June 17-23, 2001.
The Prince is a popular dive site, easy to locate
(normally buoyed) and in shallow water east of Kelleys Island.
On Tuesday, August 8, 1911 the steamer caught fire in the open
lake, under the command of Captain H.H. Parsons the Prince was bound for
Cleveland with a cargo of gravel. The upper part of her bow was discovered in
flames that at times shot as high as thirty feet in the air.
The sand suckers Mary H., Clinton, Protection and
Albert Y. Gowan were working in the lake off Cedar Point, and their captains
and crews realizing the danger the burning craft faced, went to her assistance.
They arrived and by pouring four streams of water upon the Prince they
succeeded in saving her but not until after her pilot house and superstructure
in the rear as far back as the No. 2 hatch, had been destroyed.
When the flames were discovered the captain of the Prince
ordered the boat backed into a gale that was blowing from the northwest. This
had the effect of carrying the flames over the bow and away from the stern and
did more than anything else toward saving the boat from total destruction.
Captain and crew remained aboard the threatened steamer until the fire was put
out.
Although the life savers from the Marblehead station were
summoned to the Prince, their services were not needed as the sand suckers
and the dozen smaller boats from Kelleys Island were ready to rescue the captain
and crew on a moments notice.
The Prince was a wooden vessel, 240 feet long and 2,047
gross tons, 1,547 net tons. She was built in Detroit in 1890 and was originally
a packet freighter but her upper deck works were nearly all removed for the
trade she has recently been engaged in.
Late Tuesday afternoon word came from Kelleys Island that the Prince
had been beached and that the flames were still raging in her hull. It was
apparent then that there was great danger of the total destruction of the boat.
Tuesday night it was believed that she could be recommissioned after receiving
an overhauling. The vessel was insured for $35,000.00. While Captain H. H
Parsons was beaching his boat, the fire ate its way almost half way to the
stern. Following the survey of the Prince the full extent of the damage
was determined to exceed the value of the insurance. In addition, the sand suckers
that aided in extinguishing the fire filed a salvage claim insisting the aid
rendered prevented the boat from burning to the water's edge.
Despite the fact that the boat was held by the federal
authorities, persons unknown were said to have rushed aboard and stripped
the boat of about everything of any value, then the boat "mysteriously"
burst into flames again completely destroying her. It is said some of the
furniture and other items can still be seen today in the older homes on the
island.
Ultimately, the vessels works were salvaged. The two scotch 12'
diameter boilers and the 800 HP. Fore & Aft compound engine were removed.
The shaft and four blade propeller were salvaged by the Shrock Salvage company
in the 1980's and can be seen displayed in the front of their marina complex on
North Shore Blvd., Lakeside, Ohio. One of the propeller blades had been sheared
off by the ice and was located by divers, recovered and re-attached to the
propeller a few years ago.
