Lake Erie shipwrecks of the 1900–1949

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.

How Lake Erie wrecks are protected