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Cleveco

41.79° N, 81.60° W (rounded) · Ohio waters · lost 1942

  • Storm
  • Lives lost: 18

41.79° N, 81.60° W · Rounded; not a dive position. Source: Ohio Sea Grant, Shipwrecks & Maritime Tales: Cleveco.[1]

The oil barge Cleveco went down off Euclid, Ohio, in a December 1942 gale after her tug sank beneath her towline. All 18 aboard died. The upside-down hull, still holding oil, became a long-running pollution problem until salvors finally pumped and sealed it in 1995.

The story

The Cleveco was built in 1913 at Lorain, Ohio, by the American Shipbuilding Company, originally for Standard Oil as a sailing barge. Over the next three decades she carried oil on Lake Erie under a string of names, among them S.O. & Co. No. 85, Socony 85 and Gotham 85, before becoming the Cleveco in 1940.[2,1] She was a steel tank barge 260 feet long with no engine of her own, built to be towed but carrying a crew.[1]

On December 1, 1942, loaded with about a million gallons of fuel oil, she left Toledo behind the tug Admiral for Cleveland. In the early hours of December 2, in a gale with blinding snow, the barge's crew found their towline leading straight down: the tug had capsized and sunk with all hands.[2,1] The barge's captain radioed for help. Search aircraft and the Coast Guard cutter Ossipee briefly made contact, but no rescue was possible in the storm, and radio contact ended as the barge filled.[2,1] All 18 men aboard died; wreckage and bodies came ashore off Euclid.[2,3] A 1944 court ruling found both vessels' owners liable, the barge for being unseaworthy and the tug for operating beyond her capabilities.[1]

The hulk lies upside down in about 78 feet of water some 14 miles north of Euclid.[1] It became an environmental concern. A salvage company raised her briefly in July 1961, but a storm sent her back to the bottom the next day. In 1995 salvors pumped out roughly 165,000 gallons of remaining oil and sealed her ten tanks; Ohio Sea Grant estimates that more than 87,000 gallons had escaped since 1942.[1]

Together, the Admiral and the Cleveco cost 32 lives in a single storm in December 1942.[1,3]

Lives lost: All hands.

Questions people ask

How did the Cleveco sink?

Her tug, the Admiral, capsized in a gale on December 2, 1942. Drifting without power, the oil barge could not be reached by rescuers and sank off Euclid, Ohio, with all 18 aboard.

Is there still oil in the Cleveco?

In 1995 salvors pumped about 165,000 gallons of oil from the wreck and sealed her tanks, according to Ohio Sea Grant.

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.[4][5][6]
  • 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.[7]

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

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