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Admiral

41.64° N, 81.90° W (rounded) · Ohio waters · lost 1942

  • Storm
  • Lives lost: 14

41.64° N, 81.90° W · Rounded; not a dive position. Source: Ohio Sea Grant, Shipwrecks & Maritime Tales: Admiral.[2]

The tug Admiral capsized in a December gale in 1942 while towing the loaded oil barge Cleveco from Toledo to Cleveland. All 14 men aboard died, and the drifting barge and its crew of 18 were lost soon after, a combined toll of 32 lives in one storm.

The story

The Admiral began life as the tug W.H. Meyer, built at Manitowoc, Wisconsin, by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company; Ohio Sea Grant gives the year as 1907, while the vessel record at Bowling Green State University gives 1922.[2,1] She was a steel tug about 93 feet long. In 1942 she was rebuilt for towing on the open lakes and renamed Admiral, only weeks before her loss; Ohio Sea Grant puts the rebuild 89 days before she sank.[1,2]

On December 1, 1942, she left Toledo towing the tank barge Cleveco, loaded with fuel oil for the war effort, bound for Cleveland.[3] The pair ran into a severe winter gale with heavy snow; ice built up on both vessels, and visibility was so poor that the crews could not see each other along the towline.[2] At about 4 a.m. on December 2, the men on the barge noticed that the towline now ran straight down into the lake. The Admiral had capsized and sunk about ten miles north of Avon Point, taking all 14 of her crew with her.[2,1] Only three bodies were recovered.[2]

Ohio Sea Grant reports that after her 1942 rebuild the tug had been certified as seaworthy with restrictions, including keeping the tow in line astern, and a 1944 court ruling held the owners of both vessels liable.[2,4]

A Cleveland commercial diver found the wreck in 1969 and recovered her bell as proof. Many artifacts were taken from the site in the years before Ohio protected its shipwrecks, though the bell is in a museum collection.[2] The wreck is now heavily coated in zebra mussels and partly buried in silt. It is one of the wrecks where the Maritime Archaeological Survey Team has placed a seasonal mooring buoy, and divers are warned against entering it without proper wreck-penetration training.[2]

Lives lost: All hands aboard the tug.

Questions people ask

What happened to the tug Admiral?

She capsized and sank in a winter gale on December 2, 1942, about ten miles north of Avon Point, Ohio, while towing the oil barge Cleveco. All 14 crew died.

What happened to the Cleveco?

The barge drifted east after losing her tug and sank off Euclid, Ohio, the same day with all 18 aboard. See the Cleveco entry.

Learn more

Museums and groups are linked for further reading; they are not connected with this site.

Look, don't take

Look, don't take. Shipwrecks and everything on them are protected by law; removing or disturbing anything can be a crime.

  • United States: under the Abandoned Shipwreck Act (43 U.S.C. § 2105) the U.S. claims title to abandoned shipwrecks embedded in a state's submerged lands, or resting on them and eligible for the National Register, and transfers that title to the state.[5][6][7]
  • Ohio: R.C. 1506.32 requires a permit from the Director of Natural Resources, approved by the Ohio History Connection, to recover, alter, salvage or destroy abandoned property on, in or near a submerged watercraft or aircraft in Lake Erie.[8]

How Lake Erie wrecks are protected

Diving Lake Erie wrecks is dangerous: cold water, poor visibility, depth, entanglement and boat traffic. Nothing here is dive guidance or a dive position. Dive only with proper training, a qualified operator and current information from the groups that maintain moorings.

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Sources

  1. HCGL vessel record: MEYER, W.H., Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Bowling Green State University. Accessed .
  2. Ohio Sea Grant, Shipwrecks & Maritime Tales: Admiral, Ohio Sea Grant College Program. Accessed .
  3. Cleveco, Wikipedia. Accessed .
  4. Ohio Sea Grant, Shipwrecks & Maritime Tales: Cleveco, Ohio Sea Grant College Program. Accessed .
  5. 43 U.S. Code 2105 - Rights of access (Abandoned Shipwreck Act: title to abandoned shipwrecks), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of the U.S. Code). Accessed .
  6. 43 U.S. Code 2101 - Findings (Abandoned Shipwreck Act), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of the U.S. Code). Accessed .
  7. 43 U.S. Code 2102 - Definitions (Abandoned Shipwreck Act), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of the U.S. Code). Accessed .
  8. Ohio Revised Code 1506.32 - Application for salvage permit for submerged watercraft or aircraft, Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Accessed .
  9. List of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes (Lake Erie section), Wikipedia. Accessed .

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