History and mystery just off our shore

Posted with permission from the Hamilton Spectator
___________________________________________________

With Googlie eyes, Jim scans the waters for wrecks forgotten

PAUL WILSON'S STREETBEAT
August 11, 2010
Bob Peters runs a great dive shop on Kenilworth North, but today it's sweltering in this old place.
It began in the 19205 as a Loblaws grocery store. When they pulled out to go to Centre Mall, Peters moved in. That was 1961 and Bob's Scuba Shop has been here ever since.
He's coming up 83, still dives, knows everything about the sport. And right now, he's looking at me kind of funny.
I've emerged from the change room, tightly encased in thick black rubber. I am sweating buckets. I now know why they call it a wet suit.
"Uh, I think you've got it on backwards," Bob says.
Backwards, frontwards, this thing's too tight. Bob finds me another. He gets me fins, goggles and a snorkel. All mine, for the rest of day, for $20.
I'm on an adventure, just off Confederation Park, with a man named Jim Hewlett.
He looks like John Candy. Funny like him, too. And clever about lots of things. He's 49 and runs Hamilton Engine Service in a cluttered shop behind his turreted cottage on the Beach Strip.
His specialty is building race car engines for clients. Right now, he's working on a 496 Chev. Put that on nitrous oxide and you've got 900 horsepower.
But Jim is a green guy, sits on the board of the Hamilton Conservation Authority, and drives an old Jetta that runs on vegetable oil.
Something else about Jim. He likes shipwrecks.
"It's the history and the mystery," he says. "It's aconnectionto the way we were. People died, fortunes were lost."
Sometimes he used to look for wrecks from a plane. No need for that anymore, not with the gull's-eye view provided by Google Earth.
There are half-a-dozen known wrecks just off the shores of Confederation Park and Jim's had a part in finding them.
These are not like the Hamilton and Scourge, merchant schooners pressed into service during the War of 1812. They went down in Lake Ontario nearly 200 years ago. They sit wonderfully preserved, some 100 metres below the surface.
The old boats close to the Beach Strip shores are what Jim calls shipwreck sandwiches. In relatively shallow waters, the deck collapses in on the hull due to the forces of ice and storm.
Spectacular? Perhaps not. But still, they are timbered artifacts from your great-grandpappy's day.
Not long ago, Jim was cruising Google Earth. It was a new version and this time he spotted something not visible before. No doubt about it - a ship, a long one, only 25 metres off shore, just south of where they've built that light -house - shaped lookout by Lakeland pool.
So today we're heading over. Jim counts out the paces down the beach.
I suit up. Jim does not, says he's got permanent insulation against the cold. Besides, he's just tougher.
He gives me a quick diving lesson. I didn't know you have to spit in your mask. I didn't know how easy it is to swallow water with a snorkel. I don't really get the hang of it.
No big deal. I'll swim without that pesky plastic pipe. We walk out nearly halfway to where the wreck's supposed to be. Prom here, Howlett swims further out and starts doing a sweep, back and forth, while I stand and wait.
Minutes pass. Then some more. "Too overcast," Jim says. "Can't see a thing."
But just then, the sun appears. He heads back, and soon he's waving me out.
"Right below us," he says.
"About eight feet."
Deep breath, kick of the fins. And just down where your ears start to hurt, there it is. Ribs and planks. Shape of a bow. Wow.
Back up for air. Back down. This time I grab hold of the carcass, pull myself along.
The ears are hurting more, but I do it one more time. It's buried history, and I'm touching it. Slimy, but still athrill.
I thank Howlett for the adventure, head back to Bob's shop.
I tell Bob about the dive. He's interested. And then he tells me that when he was a kid, there was a big
old wreck that somehow got beached right around there. Part of it was sticking up and you could dive right off it.
What happened to it?
"It sat there for years," Bob says. " I think the city eventually just dragged it out a ways. They didn't want people getting hurt."
Today's big find? It's just possible Bob the diver beat Jim and me to it by some 70 years.
StreetBeat appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday pwilson@thespec. com 905-526-3241

Shipwreck is a mystery; Vessel is a pre-Confederation sidewheel steamer

[Final Edition]
The Spectator - Hamilton, Ont.
Author: Paul Morse
Date: Jul 26, 2002




A mystery shipwreck, sitting just below the surface not 80 metres off Confederation Park, has set local dive enthusiasts' nitrogen- rich blood abubble.

It is in such shallow water that divers can walk halfway to the wreck and then snorkel the rest of the way.

Spotted from the air last year, and thought to be a 1870s schooner, a research team dove to the wreck last month.

It turns out it is a pre-Confederation sidewheel steamer about 45 metres long.

"It was probably a passenger vessel," said Jim Howlett, a Hamilton Conservation Authority official who dove to it with a provincial marine archeologist.

"Finding a passenger vessel is like finding a jetliner instead of a Piper Cub."

Shipwreck sleuths knew something was in the area after a big piece of the wreckage washed up at Van Wagner's Beach two years ago in a fearsome nor'easter off the lake.

Experts tentatively identified the 17-metre chunk of ribs, planks, keelson and keel as part of an 1870s Great Lakes schooner. They then buried the wreckage near where it washed ashore to preserve it.

Local history also supported the schooner theory.

Years ago, Howlett came across a 1927 article in The Hamilton Spectator that mentioned shipwrecks off Van Wagner's Beach.

"The story goes that during a cholera epidemic, the city needed a new water intake," Howlett said.

A squall in 1889 sank the schooners involved in dredging a channel for the first Hamilton water intake pipe out into Lake Ontario.

"It's a wonderful find," said Peter Engelbert, a marine archeologist with the Ministry of Culture. "It's a real treat because it wasn't what they thought it would be."

Sidewheel steamers played an important role in Hamilton's marine economy in the mid-1800s. They ferried passengers and cargo to Toronto and across the lake to American ports.

Several sidewheelers sank near Hamilton during that time, including one in 1853 that nearly destroyed Hamilton's entire waterfront.

According to shipwreck archives, The Queen of the West caught fire while tied to a wharf for the night.

"After her hawsers burned through, she drifted to Brown's wharf, where she threatened to ignite the entire waterfront," says the David Swayze Great Lakes Shipwreck Database.

"An American skipper and his mate were later cited for bravery after the mate swam to the burning vessel, tied a hawser from his vessel, the steamer Rochester, to her bow, then hauled her away from the pier to prevent the fire from spreading."

But Howlett thinks The Queen of the West, at more than 60 metres long, is not the mystery wreck. He's looking closely at a sidewheel steamer called The City of Hamilton, later renamed The City of the Bay, built in 1850. It disappeared in 1878. The dive team has sent survey information to the Nautical Archaeological Society in Britain, which will compile a detailed orthographic composite of the wreck.

You can contact Paul Morse, Stoney Creek News Bureau, at 905-662- 3811 or at pmorse@hamiltonspectator.com.

Mysterious shipwreck found a stone throw from Confederation Park

[Final Edition]
Stoney Creek News - Stoney Creek, Ont.
Date: Jul 10, 2002


A mysterious shipwreck has been discovered almost a stone's throw from Confederation Park, and local dive enthusiasts want to know who she is and how she got there.

So does Jim Howlett, a member of the Hamilton Conservation Authority board, the man who has been quietly cultivating interest in the wreck. Although even he admits he was surprised to learn the historical significance of his discovery, and its enigma. The mystery is that the ship that divers rediscovered June 16 is not the one Howlett was expecting to find - it's much older and it's of a type of ship that should have been recorded as lost when it sank.

"It's a wonderful find," said Peter Engelbert, a marine archaeologists with the Ministry of Cultures, who participated in the dive. "It's a real treat, because it wasn't what they thought it would be."

Divers were expecting to find a schooner, circa 1870. Instead, they found a side-wheeler steamer, circa 1850. This type of craft would have been used primarily by the wealthy as a ferry across the lakes. As a result, the loss of a side-wheeler would no doubt have attracted much public attention when it failed to dock at its intended destination. Yet, according to Howlett, there is no record of such a sinking that is known or can be easily traced.

A Beach Strip resident and shipwreck buff, Howlett originally spotted the wreck by air in March of 2000 with pilot Bob Nellis, owner of Nellis Aviation in Brantford, using digital cameras and image enhancing equipment. There were three wrecks sighted. At the time, they were believed to be schooners that sank in a squall in 1889 while workers were dredging a channel for the first Hamilton water intake pipe out into Lake Ontario. The air hunt for the wrecks was sparked after a large section of one of them washed up on shore. It's doubtful that the side-wheeler sunk as a result of intentional scuttling, says Howlett. There seems to be too much valuable engine machinery still on board and pretty much intact.

Engelbert said it is difficult to speculate about the wreck one way or the other due to a complete lack of research. Volunteers from the Hamilton chapter of Save Ontario Shipwrecks will now survey the wreck during a number of future dives. How long that will take is also hard to say. In order to learn more about the vessel, it might be possible to identify a main engine part or boiler that can be traced to the original manufacturer and eventually learn which engine parts went to which steamers and, by process of elimination, put a name to the wreck.

But Engelbert said it is doubtful there will be anything on the wreck itself that will help to identify the ship. He is convinced there is a newspaper account in some archive that will be the ultimate clue.

First, archaeologists and volunteers will attempt to narrow down the age of the ship. Then they can begin the archive search.

"It could have been 1840s or 1850s, and the ship could have operated from Toronto to Rochester," Engelbert said. "This (process) could take years. It really is difficult to speculate at this time how she got there."

Howlett said the only explanation in his mind is that the steamer may have left from the other end of the lake and somehow got off course, then sank out of its normal operating range.

"And that just fuels the mystery," said Howlett.

How, or why, it sank may be part of the puzzle that's never known.

Shipwreck is buried in temporary shelter; Preservation issues cut off sightseers

[Final Edition]



The Spectator - Hamilton, Ont.
Date: Mar 14, 2000


It's too late to go see the mystery shipwreck believed to have been washed ashore at Confederation Park a few weeks ago.

A contractor called in by the Hamilton Region Conservation Authority (HRCA) yesterday buried the nearly 18-metre skeletal section of what's believed to have been a 19th century wooden sailing ship.

Jim Howlett, a shipwreck buff who also happens to be an HRCA member, says provincial officials agreed with the authority that the white oak timbers should be protected from sunlight, storm damage, and souvenir-seekers.

"So they dug a shallow grave and interred it until there is sufficient time and resources to properly preserve it. It's going to be an exhibit one way or another. The question is when," Howlett said.

"Until then, it was agreed by all parties the best thing we could do from a historical perspective was to bury it again in similar conditions, close to the waterline and away from where storms can get at it."

Howlett figures the remains are those of a schooner, perhaps 40 to 60 metres long, dating from the mid-19th century.

It was first thought a storm had uncovered the wreckage, but Howlett now says it was washed ashore at the east end of the park near Grays Road.

Hundreds of curious people were drawn to the scene, prompting complaints from owners of adjacent private land who complained that the crowds were leaving behind paper cups, cigarette butts and other litter.

Wooden ships or pieces of them can survive for a long time without rotting in the dark, cold depths of Lake Ontario. But the timber must be treated if it's to remain intact once dried out.

Howlett says he hopes the authority will one day find the money to soak the wood in a preservative solution so it can be displayed as part of a marine history interpretive site.

Shipwrecks preserve local history;

The Spectator - Hamilton, Ont.
Author: John Burman
Date: Jul 22, 2000
Ships sank during dredging to pipe clean water during epidemic.

A Hamilton shipwreck buff and a Brantford pilot have located three wooden ships they believe sank off Confederation Park while dredging a channel for the city's first water intake pipe in Lake Ontario just over 100 years ago.

Jim Howlett, a Beach Strip resident and board member of the Hamilton-Wentworth Regional Conservation Authority, and pilot Bob Nellis, owner of Nellis Aviation in Brantford, found the wrecks in March with digital cameras and image enhancement equipment.

"Bob gets the credit," says Howlett. "He is actually the first guy to have seen the wrecks."

"He is probably the best wreck-spotter in the country."

One is a large wooden schooner broken in two. The bow section is the largest, about 80 to 100 feet long, and lies about nine metres down. It is in surprisingly good condition. The stern portion rests about a half a kilometre away.

Howlett has already done several dives on the wreck.

"No one else has been there. It is undisturbed."

Howlett and the conservation authority are interested in turning it into an attraction for divers, a "Tobermory south" he calls it, referring to the popular diving area off the Bruce Peninsula in Georgian Bay.

The second wreck is about one kilometre off the beach. It's believed a large portion of this hulk washed ashore soon after the wreck. It was uncovered for only the second time in a century last March.

That piece has been reburied until the conservation authority can handle its preservation.

The third is a large wooden vessel about 250 feet long and complete from stem to stern. All but the upper three feet of the hull is buried in sand, but the deck is intact.

Howlett says he believes the three ships, one still carrying its dredging equipment on deck along with other machinery and rigging, sank in a squall as workers dredged a channel for the first Hamilton water intake pipe out to the 18-metre depth in Lake Ontario in 1889.

The intake was part of the Woodward Avenue steam pumping station project the city launched to supply clean drinking water for residents during a cholera epidemic.

"They were in a real hurry. The idea was to save lives."

It appears three of the ships working on the dredging job sank in a squall at the same time.

"We are searching insurance records for that date to try to learn their identities."

Howlett made a dive on the two-part wreck a couple of weeks ago and was shocked to find it in good condition.

"This is the best shallow water wreck I have ever seen," says Howlett.

"To have this in an urban area is unprecedented. To have it in a regional park is beyond belief to me."

He's been looking for this wreck since 1986 and was half afraid it had been destroyed by ice or a ship dragging its anchor.

"It looks like it was a schooner, made in the mid- to late- 1800s. There is the forward three quarters of it and the stern appears to be further off shore."

Howlett says the ship sank, came to rest on a bit of a ridge or sandbar on the lake floor and broke in two after rocking back and forth on the sand.

"The wreck has a carved, rather ornate bowsprit, not unlike the head end of a violin lying beside it. It is a dream for it to be there.

"The bowsprit is lying on the lee side of the bow, down near the base of the hull where it would be protected."

There is some damage to the decks but not enough to dim Howlett's enthusiasm.

"Don't get the picture there's (another) intact Hamilton or Scourge down there. There are some pretty darn good remains of a shipwreck that are not smashed, crushed or dynamited, as often happens to shallow water wrecks."

Howlett also expects to find the anchors, which were run out to hold the ship in the squall, as soon as he can drag a metal detector through the area.

"It is in the park. So far the idea is conservation authority staff are looking into what to do with the wreck to create a diving node or niche."

He is going to have a marine archeologist look at the wreck. Conservation authority staff are preparing a report for the authority's board in October.

He expects more dives on the wreck and photographs will be done next month.

"Then we will see what will be done."

He is fairly certain these are the three ships that sank during the dredging operation because of their proximity to each other.

Howlett is anxious not to reveal the exact location of each of the wrecks even though there are laws in effect now to protect them from artifact- hunters. The first thing to go would be the bowsprit, which is portable.

"There's maybe a half dozen people that know about it."

Tantalizing clues to mysterious shipwreck

Unidentified keel, ribs may be historic link to Great Lakes
By JAMES ELLIOTT
The Spectator
March 4, 2000

Just Call. it a UFO - as in unidentified floating object.
A great whack of marine flotsam that fetched up on the beach at Confedation Park earlier this week is most kely part of a 19th century GreatLlakes schooner.
The nearly 60-foot slab of ribs, planks, kelsons and keel, arrived (or uncovered) sometime Wednesday night after an easterly storm battered the beach. Early indications are the wreckage was actually uncovered rather than washed ashore after low water levels exposed it to surf.
"It's history come to visit," said Jim Howlett, a beach resident and board member of the Hamilton-Wentworth Regional Conservation Authority, after insperting the remains.
Howlett inspected the remains and said that judging from the way it's been put together, "it's conistent with the mid-1800s." He figures it was likely a big wooden schooner from 130 feet to 200 feet, of a type that was once common on all the Great Lakes.
He says the planking is built of white oak, some of it eight inches thick, and is bound to the ribs with iron rods, which would have been red-hot when installed, then constricted when cool to draw the pieces together:
There is nothing on the wreckage to identify it, but there are some tantalizing clues in a Spectator article printed 53 years ago.
In the spring of 1937, reporter Bruce Murdock reported on a shipwreck that washed up in tIle same general area as this week's find.
And be received several replies from readers who remembered a wreck off shore.
One James Low of Hillcrest Avenue said he used to swim from a partially-submerged wreck during the early 1920s, about 40 feet offshore "in eight or nine feet of water. We made many enquiries about the origin of the old hulk, .. but found not a clue as to her name or from whence she came."
Charles Matthewnian, of Beach Boulevard, said he believed the wreck.
age came from two hulks qrought from Kingston when the city laid "the big waterworks pipe in the bottom of the lake.
"The two old ships were anchored broadside to the deep trench cut inthe lake to prevent waves filling it in. A gale sprang up ... the ship nearest to shore went to pieces, many parts have been covered up by sand."
The first intake pipe to bringing water from the lake to the laid in 1889. This could be the wreckage was originally buried, to surface 48 years later in 1937
then again in 2000.
Howlett says the conservation authority has yet to decide what with the wreckage, but the most appropriate would be to leave it right w it is.
"It's a really nice thing to let people see because it's mystery, it's history, it puts them in touch with a past they only see today in movies.
"It's interpretive right now. I think the biggest danger is that partyers set it on fire, but that also might be part of the thing's eventual destiny."

James Elliott can be reached at 526-2444 or by e-mail at: jelliott@hamiltonspectator.com.

A couple of interesting links

For the Hamilton and Scourge;

http://www.hamilton-scourge.hamilton.ca/the-schooners.asp

http://www.asi-group.com/marine/Hamilton_Scourge.htm

Some interesting sites I came across.

http://www.hamiltonnews.com/whats-on/ships-remain-in-hamiltonians-hearts/

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=vcsr&GSvcid=310668

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/f...=1813&GSdyrel=in&GSob=n&GRid=94236548&df=all&