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Dundee

41.69° N, 81.84° W (rounded) · Ohio waters · lost 1900

41.69° N, 81.84° W · Rounded; not a dive position. Source: Ohio Sea Grant, Shipwrecks & Maritime Tales: Dundee.[1]

The schooner-barge Dundee was cut loose by her towing steamer in the September 1900 gale and foundered off Cleveland; her crew lashed themselves to the rigging and six survived, but the cook was swept away. Sitting upright in about 70 feet of water, she is one of Lake Erie's most complete wrecks.

The story

The Dundee was built in 1893 at West Bay City, Michigan, by James Davidson for the Davidson Transportation Company; Ohio Sea Grant notes that Davidson's shipyard, in business from 1871 to 1929, was known as a pioneer of technical advances in shipbuilding.[1] She was a three-masted, two-deck schooner-barge about 211 feet long, which worked under tow carrying iron ore, coal and lumber.[1] She had already survived one accident in 1895, when she lost her rudder in a gale on Lake Superior and ran aground.[1]

In September 1900 she was bound from Duluth for Ashtabula with iron ore, towed by the steamer John N. Glidden, when the gale left by the Galveston hurricane struck Lake Erie. To save his own ship, the steamer's master cast her off.[1,2] The Dundee lost her rudder in the heavy seas, and her captain, crew and cook climbed into the rigging and tied themselves to the masts. At some point in the night the cook was lost from the rigging and her body was never found; the six crewmen were rescued a few hours later.[1] Ohio Sea Grant dates the loss to September 11, 1900, while Wikipedia's list gives a November date; the newspaper account of the September storm quoted by Ohio Sea Grant names the Dundee among its victims.[1,3,2]

The wreck sits upright on the bottom about 14 miles north-northwest of Cleveland, in 68 to 75 feet of water. When divers first found her in the 1970s the bow was intact; since then the windlass and donkey boiler have fallen to one side and collapsed much of the upper deck.[1] She remains, in the words of Ohio Sea Grant, one of the most complete wrecks in the central basin, and it is one of six wrecks on which the Maritime Archaeological Survey Team has placed a mooring buoy.[1] An anchor from the Dundee is displayed in Vermilion, Ohio.[1]

Sources differ: Ohio Sea Grant gives September 11, 1900; Wikipedia's list gives November 9, 1900.

Lives lost: The ship's cook; six crew were rescued from the rigging.

Questions people ask

How did the Dundee sink?

Her towing steamer cast her off in a gale in September 1900. She lost her rudder and foundered off Cleveland; the crew survived in the rigging, but the cook was lost.

Is the Dundee wreck intact?

Largely. She sits upright in 68 to 75 feet of water, and Ohio Sea Grant calls her one of the most complete wrecks in Lake Erie's central basin, though the bow area has partly collapsed.

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: Dundee, Ohio Sea Grant College Program. Accessed .
  2. Ohio Sea Grant, Shipwrecks & Maritime Tales: John B Lyon, Ohio Sea Grant College Program. 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. Ohio Revised Code 1506.32 - Application for salvage permit for submerged watercraft or aircraft, Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Accessed .

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