Title: 4 Shipwrecks in 1 Day,
Tags: Wrecks, St Lawrence River, Canada
Blog Entry: Last week (Sept 4/08) I got an email from Chris (aka: Moondog). The South Shore Scuba club of Leamington, Ontario, had a charter running out of Rockport Ontario (in Thousand Islands, near Alexandria Bay NY, for our US friends). They had a couple of cancellations, & did I want to join the charter? It took me about 3 seconds to, reply back "WELL YES"!!! The club was meeting at the dock at 8:30, (this was just 1-1/4 hrs drive for me so I packed the car Friday night, and headed out about 7 am, stopping just long enough to get a coffee & breakfast sandwich at Tim Horton's drive thru. (Canadian coffee & donut chain). The charter was on the Admiral-C, a large steel, house boat, refitted for diving. Twin gas I/O's it moved along about 12 knotts. There were 13 divers in all, so we had lots of room. ( the boat takes 20) . The Admiral-C is one of 4 dive boats in the fleet of ABUCS (scuba spelled backwards) Dive charters, owned by Helen Cooper of Brockville, Ontario. I highly recommend them if you want to dive in the 1000 islands/Brockville area. I should also note here the St Lawrence River is a pleasure to dive in for 2 reasons, a) mild current, that clears silt if there are newbies stiring up the bottom. b) NO thermocline. The surface water from lake Ontario is thoroughly mixed by the time it hits the 1000 Islands. So the temperature was a nice 72°F all the way from surface to bottom. I buddies with Chris for the dives since we were "aquainted" via the Dive Area, although we had never met face to face before. Weather was good, it was cloudy, over cast all day, which made visibilty less than optimal, but there was no wind, the river was flat smooth all day, air temp was about 70°, which made standing around in suits, fine. Dive 1) approx 10 am Ashe Island Barge:, a belly dumper barge that sank in the night, unattended, full of gravel. approx 115 max depth. This style of barge was used a lot during the dredging of the St Lawrence Seaway. It would be filled, by steam shovel, then moved and the trap doors in the belly opened the dump the debris. Noticeable items: small wooden table say still lying on deck, hand tool in various locations. I could not find any pictures of the barge, but there is a survey of the wreck, here's the pow (preserve ontario wrecks) link: http://www.powkingston.com/proj_ash_island.html The next two wrecks are in US waters, so we had to go the Bolt Castle, on Heart Island for about 1/2 hour to clear US customs before we could tie up the the US wrecks. http://www.boldtcastle.com/ Dive 2) aprox 12:30 noon, The Keystorm, 250 ft long great lakes steel freighter, built 1910, sank 1912 when it ran aground, full of iron ore. This is my favourite wreck in the St Lawrence R. I had the pleasure of touring Chris & Dan(DM) around the wreck as I have been on here several times. Bow is in 30 ft, stern.propeller in 115. She lies on her side and is a great wreck for beginners and advanced divers a like. It's hard to do her justice in words but here's alink to soem really great photos. http://www.scubaq.ca/ontarioscubadiving/keystorm.htm Dive 3) aprox 2:30 pm drilling barge: America. This wreck is just a 1/2 hr from the Keystorm, so the BBQ was started after we tied up and lunch was served. The America turtled (flipped over) when see sank. They were packing tubes with dynamite, and "OOPS", 12 people died when it sank. The tie-up is in a large anchor in 30 ft of water, just out of the shipping channel, there is a good 5-10 minute swim to the barge, but there is a lead line to follow. The wreck is in 55 - 75 ft of water. You can swim under/thru it but care must be taken there is still Bunker-C oil on/in her & it rubs onto & sticks to your gear, suit, fins etc. Pictures here: http://www.scubaq.ca/ontarioscubadiving/america.htm Dive 4) about 4:30 pm, The Kinghorn, a two mast sailing vessel, converted to a barge, tow line broke in a storem. This was another treat, as it was also my first time on this wreck. I about 80 ft of water, current is stronger, due to the way the river funnels between the islands. This wreck is just 200 yds from the dock where we left this morning btw. The wreck in basiclly a hull and deck with large hatchways. It's open inside so a swim thru is must. Non silting kick is import you don't stir things up ruining the experience for others. On the way back up the ascent line it was crowded at the 15 ft stop. Luckily I brought my JON line. I clipped it to that ascent line and we were able to hang about 10 ft down stream of the 6-8 other divers clustered on the line for our safety stop. Wreck Photos here: http://www.scubaq.ca/ontarioscubadiving/kinghorn.htm We finished up back at the dock at about 6 pm. I have to extend my thanks to Chris & the South Shore Scub Club for inviting on the charter. I had a fabulous time. Mike D
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