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Anthony Wayne

Ohio waters · lost 1850

  • Fire
  • Lives lost: 38–70
  • Location withheld

This site's location is withheld. Ohio Sea Grant reports that the discoverers have not revealed the location; National Register-listed archaeological site. This page shows the general area only.

The steamer Anthony Wayne, lithograph by J.W. Orr
J.W. Orr, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Toned for this site.

An early Lake Erie passenger steamer, the Anthony Wayne blew up off Vermilion, Ohio, in the spring of 1850 when her boilers exploded. Between 38 and about 70 people died. Found in 2006, the wreck is believed to be the oldest steamboat wreck in the lake.

The story

The Anthony Wayne was built in 1837 at Perrysburg, Ohio, on the Maumee River, by Samuel L. Hubbell. She was a wooden sidewheel steamer about 156 feet long, carrying passengers and package freight between Lake Erie ports.[1,2] Her career was eventful even before the end. She caught fire at a Sandusky wharf in 1843, lost her upper deck to a violent gale at Detroit in 1848, and was rebuilt at Trenton, Michigan, over the winter of 1848-49 with a new engine and boilers.[2,1]

In late April 1850 she left Toledo, called at Sandusky and set out for Buffalo around midnight with passengers, livestock and some 300 barrels of wine and whiskey. Off Vermilion two of her starboard boilers exploded and she sank.[2] The captain was thrown from his bed but survived in a lifeboat that drifted ashore at Vermilion.[2] The toll is uncertain. The HCGL vessel record and the divers who found her give 38 dead, while Wikipedia's shipwreck list estimates about 70.[1,3,4]

The wreck lay undiscovered for more than 150 years. In 2006 Tom Kowalczk of the Cleveland Underwater Explorers found it with side-scan sonar in about 50 feet of water, roughly eight miles north of Vermilion, and the discovery was announced with the Great Lakes Historical Society in June 2007.[2,5] Divers found the hull in two sections, with both side wheels still present.[5]

Archaeologists surveyed the site in 2008 and 2009, uncovering and recording the horizontal steam engine, possibly one of the earliest surviving marine engines on the Great Lakes, before reburying it to protect it.[6] The wreck was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018, and its exact location has not been made public.[2,5]

Sources differ: Sources give April 27 (HCGL, CLUE) or April 28, 1850 (Wikipedia); the steamer left Sandusky at midnight.

Lives lost: HCGL and CLUE give 38 lives lost; Wikipedia's list estimates about 70, and its article says about 30 of 80-100 aboard survived.

Questions people ask

How many people died on the Anthony Wayne?

Sources differ: 38 according to the HCGL vessel record and CLUE, and about 70 according to Wikipedia's list of Great Lakes shipwrecks.

Where is the Anthony Wayne wreck?

In about 50 feet of water roughly eight miles north of Vermilion, Ohio. The discoverers have not made the exact location public.

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.[7][8][9]
  • 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.[10]

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: WAYNE, ANTHONY, Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Bowling Green State University. Accessed .
  2. PS Anthony Wayne, Wikipedia. Accessed .
  3. Welcome to Cleveland Underwater Explorers, Cleveland Underwater Explorers (CLUE). Accessed .
  4. List of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes (Lake Erie section), Wikipedia. Accessed .
  5. Ohio Sea Grant, Shipwrecks & Maritime Tales: Anthony Wayne, Ohio Sea Grant College Program. Accessed .
  6. Welcome to Cleveland Underwater Explorers, Cleveland Underwater Explorers (CLUE). Accessed .
  7. 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 .
  8. 43 U.S. Code 2101 - Findings (Abandoned Shipwreck Act), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of the U.S. Code). Accessed .
  9. 43 U.S. Code 2102 - Definitions (Abandoned Shipwreck Act), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of the U.S. Code). Accessed .
  10. Ohio Revised Code 1506.32 - Application for salvage permit for submerged watercraft or aircraft, Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Accessed .

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