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Clarion

Ontario waters · lost 1909

This site's location is withheld. In Ontario waters, where the Ontario Heritage Act requires a licence for any work on a marine archaeological site. Position withheld; general area only. This page shows the general area only.

The iron freighter Clarion caught fire near the Southeast Shoal in a December gale in 1909 and burned. Fifteen of her crew died, many of them in a lifeboat that was never seen again; six men were picked up by the steamer Leonard C. Hanna.

The story

The Clarion was an iron-hulled propeller built in 1881 by the Detroit Dry Dock Company at Wyandotte, Michigan, about 241 feet long and first enrolled at Detroit that August.[1]

In early December 1909 she was bound from Chicago for Buffalo with flour, corn and mixed freight. On December 8, near the Southeast Shoal off Point Pelee, she caught fire.[1] Wikipedia's list of 1909 shipwrecks says she had struck a shoal, and that she burned and sank about a mile southeast of the Southeast Shoal lightship. One crewman died fighting the fire and another died in a lifeboat, while a second lifeboat carrying thirteen men disappeared.[2] The steamer Leonard C. Hanna rescued six crewmen. Fifteen lives were lost, according to the HCGL vessel record, and her final enrollment was surrendered at Erie, Pennsylvania, on December 28, 1909.[1]

Wikipedia's list of Lake Erie shipwrecks describes her as a passenger ship that ran aground in a heavy gale and burned on the shoal; the HCGL record lists her as a propeller carrying freight.[3,1]

Wikipedia's list gives the same date, December 8, 1909, for the loss of the car ferry Marquette & Bessemer No. 2, which sank in a storm with thirty-four to thirty-eight people aboard.[3] The site lies in Canadian waters, so this page gives the general area only.

Lives lost: Six crew were rescued by the steamer Leonard C. Hanna.

Questions people ask

How many people died on the Clarion?

Fifteen, according to the HCGL vessel record. Six crewmen were rescued by the steamer Leonard C. Hanna; a lifeboat carrying thirteen men was never found.

Where did the Clarion burn?

Near the Southeast Shoal off Point Pelee, Ontario; Wikipedia's 1909 list puts her about a mile southeast of the Southeast Shoal lightship.

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.

  • 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.[4][5][6]

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: CLARION, Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Bowling Green State University. Accessed .
  2. List of shipwrecks in 1909, Wikipedia. Accessed .
  3. List of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes (Lake Erie section), Wikipedia. Accessed .
  4. law-on-oha-part6, Government of Ontario (e-Laws). Accessed .
  5. law-on-oreg-11-06, Government of Ontario (e-Laws). Accessed .
  6. Atlantic (1848 ship), Wikipedia. Accessed .

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