Lost to fire
Wooden steamers carried their own danger. These 8 ships burned, including two of the lake's deadliest disasters, the Erie in 1841 and the G.P. Griffith in 1850.
All Lake Erie shipwrecks Storms
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.
- 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.
- Michigan: MCL 324.76107 forbids recovering, altering or destroying abandoned property on Great Lakes bottomlands without a joint state permit; penalties run from a misdemeanor to a felony punishable by up to 10 years.
- New York: Education Law § 233 makes it a class A misdemeanor to investigate, excavate, remove, injure or destroy objects of historical or archaeological interest on, in or under state-owned lands without the written permission of the Commissioner of Education.
- Pennsylvania: title to abandoned shipwrecks in Pennsylvania's part of Lake Erie passes to the Commonwealth under the federal Abandoned Shipwreck Act, and state permission is required to disturb them.
- Ontario: under the Ontario Heritage Act no one may alter a marine archaeological site or remove an artifact from it without a provincial licence; fines for breaking this rule can reach $1,000,000.
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.