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Hickory Stick

41.54° N, 82.10° W (rounded) · Ohio waters · lost 1958

  • Storm
  • Lives lost: Unknown

41.54° N, 82.10° W · Rounded; not a dive position. Source: Ohio Sea Grant, Shipwrecks & Maritime Tales: Hickory Stick.[1]

The derrick barge Hickory Stick was left at anchor off Avon Point, Ohio, when a November 1958 gale with 15-foot waves and 75-mph gusts tore through. She broke apart and sank with her crane and machinery aboard, and her companion tug was believed lost the same weekend.

The story

The Hickory Stick was a derrick barge, a working platform carrying a crane, built in 1944 at New Rochelle, New York. She was 110 feet long and 30 feet wide, and by 1958 she belonged to the Dyche Salvage Company of Lakewood, Ohio.[1]

On Saturday, November 29, 1958, she was at anchor off Avon Point, west of Cleveland, loaded with her crane, generators, winches and pumps, when a severe gale struck.[1] According to a shipwreck directory quoted by Ohio Sea Grant, she foundered in 15-foot waves and winds of 75 miles an hour after the tug Black Marlin left her at anchor.[1] A Lorain newspaper report from December 1, 1958, reprinted by Ohio Sea Grant, said the waves had turned the barge to kindling, that a companion tug which broke loose from its anchor was believed to have sunk, and that Coast Guardsmen from Lorain had rescued the tug's skipper and first mate.[1] Wikipedia's list records that the barge broke apart and sank in the storm.[2]

The wreck lies in about 42 feet of water roughly 1.75 miles off Avon Point.[1] It is one of a cluster of twentieth-century work-boat wrecks off Avon Lake, alongside the derrick barge Craftsman, which sank only months earlier in June 1958, and the tug Alva B closer inshore.[3,4]

Ohio Sea Grant has little more to say about the site yet, noting that its information will be updated as it becomes available.[1] Ohio law requires a permit from the state, approved by the Ohio History Connection, to recover, alter, salvage or destroy anything on a wreck in Ohio's part of Lake Erie.[5]

Lives lost: The sources do not report any deaths; the tug's skipper and mate were rescued by the Coast Guard.

Questions people ask

How did the Hickory Stick sink?

She foundered at anchor off Avon Point, Ohio, in a gale on November 29, 1958, with 15-foot waves and 75-mph winds, after her tug left her.

How deep is the Hickory Stick?

About 42 feet, roughly 1.75 miles off Avon Point, 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.[6][7][8]
  • 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.[5]

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: Hickory Stick, Ohio Sea Grant College Program. Accessed .
  2. List of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes (Lake Erie section), Wikipedia. Accessed .
  3. Ohio Sea Grant, Shipwrecks & Maritime Tales: Craftsman, Ohio Sea Grant College Program. Accessed .
  4. Ohio Sea Grant, Shipwrecks & Maritime Tales: Alva B, Ohio Sea Grant College Program. Accessed .
  5. Ohio Revised Code 1506.32 - Application for salvage permit for submerged watercraft or aircraft, Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Accessed .
  6. 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 .
  7. 43 U.S. Code 2101 - Findings (Abandoned Shipwreck Act), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of the U.S. Code). Accessed .
  8. 43 U.S. Code 2102 - Definitions (Abandoned Shipwreck Act), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of the U.S. Code). Accessed .

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