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Dean Richmond

New York waters · lost 1893

No public position. General area: Off Dunkirk, New York.

The Cleveland-built steamer Dean Richmond survived groundings, a breakdown and even a fire that sank her in 1871, only to break up off Dunkirk, New York, in the great gale of October 14, 1893. Seventeen of the eighteen people aboard died, and three would-be rescuers were also lost.

The story

The Dean Richmond was a wooden propeller built at Cleveland in 1864 by Quayle & Martin, about 239 feet long and first enrolled at Cleveland that April.[1] Her HCGL vessel record reads like a catalogue of lake hazards. She went ashore at Grand Traverse on Lake Michigan in 1868, broke down on Lake Huron in 1870 and grounded on the St. Clair Flats in 1871. On October 29, 1871, she burned and sank in Mud Lake on the St. Marys River. She was raised, towed to Buffalo and rebuilt by the Union Dry Dock Company at a cost of $135,000, the work being recorded in April 1873.[1]

Her last voyage ended in the storm of mid-October 1893, which Wikipedia's list of that year's shipwrecks links to the Great Charleston Hurricane. On October 14 she broke up and foundered in Lake Erie off Dunkirk, New York.[2,1] The HCGL record counts seventeen dead out of eighteen aboard, and the Wikipedia list adds that three people who tried to rescue them also died. Her final enrollment was surrendered at Port Huron, Michigan, on November 15, 1893.[1,2]

The same day the gale sank the steamer Wocoken and her consort, the schooner-barge Joseph Paige, off Long Point on the Canadian side of the lake.[2,3] Wikipedia's list of Lake Erie shipwrecks places the Dean Richmond's loss near Erie, Pennsylvania, rather than off Dunkirk; the HCGL record and the 1893 list both say Dunkirk.[3,1]

Lives lost: Seventeen of eighteen aboard died (HCGL); Wikipedia's 1893 list adds three would-be rescuers.

Questions people ask

How many died when the Dean Richmond sank?

Seventeen of the eighteen people aboard, according to the HCGL vessel record. Wikipedia's 1893 list says three would-be rescuers also died.

What storm sank the Dean Richmond?

The gale of October 14, 1893, which Wikipedia's 1893 shipwreck list links to the Great Charleston Hurricane. It also sank the Wocoken off Long Point the same day.

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]
  • 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.[7][4]

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: RICHMOND, DEAN, Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Bowling Green State University. Accessed .
  2. List of shipwrecks in 1893, Wikipedia. Accessed .
  3. List of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes (Lake Erie section), Wikipedia. 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. law-ny-edn-233, nysenate.gov. Accessed .

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