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Lake Serpent

Ohio waters · lost 1829

  • Cause unknown
  • Lives lost: 2
  • Location withheld

This site's location is withheld. The finders have not published the location. Position withheld; general area only. This page shows the general area only.

Built at Cleveland in 1821, the schooner Lake Serpent sailed to Put-in-Bay for a load of stone in the autumn of 1829 and was never seen again; the bodies of her captain and his brother washed ashore in Lorain County. A wreck found by Cleveland divers in 2015 is believed to be hers.

The story

The Lake Serpent was built in Cleveland in 1821 and spent about eight years carrying general cargo, according to Cleveland Underwater Explorers (CLUE).[1] In the autumn of 1829 she went to Put-in-Bay, on South Bass Island, to load stone. On October 8 the Cleveland Weekly Herald reported that she had sailed four weeks earlier and had not been heard from; the paper confirmed that she had taken on her cargo but had not been seen since. Her fate became clear in the first week of October, when the bodies of her captain, Ezra Wright, and his brother Robert were found on the shore in Lorain County.[1] Wikipedia's list of Lake Erie shipwrecks says that both men aboard fell overboard and drowned, and that she was carrying limestone to Cleveland.[2]

On July 23, 2015, CLUE member Tom Kowalczk found a new target with side-scan sonar, and a dive team made the first survey dives on August 16, collecting measurements and the layout of the site. Research by Kowalczk and the National Museum of the Great Lakes narrowed more than 200 possible losses to three candidates, with the Lake Serpent the best match and two other vessels, the Fair Play and the Victor, less likely. To be sure, CLUE planned to excavate parts of the buried hull to look for the stone cargo and for a sea-serpent figurehead at the bow.[1]

Wikipedia's list dates the discovery to 2016 and the identification to 2019, and calls her the oldest confirmed shipwreck in Lake Erie.[2] CLUE has not published the wreck's position, so this page does not give one.[1]

Sources differ: Lost in late September or early October 1829, according to Cleveland Underwater Explorers.

Lives lost: The captain, Ezra Wright, and his brother Robert; their bodies came ashore in Lorain County.

Questions people ask

Is the Lake Serpent the oldest shipwreck in Lake Erie?

Wikipedia's list of Lake Erie shipwrecks calls her the oldest confirmed wreck in the lake. She was built in Cleveland in 1821 and lost in 1829.

Who found the Lake Serpent?

Tom Kowalczk of Cleveland Underwater Explorers found the sonar target on July 23, 2015, and CLUE divers surveyed it that August; Wikipedia's list gives later dates for the discovery and identification.

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.[3][4][5]
  • 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.[6]

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.

Nearby lighthouses

Nearby shipwrecks

Nearby · Sponsored

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Sources

  1. Welcome to Cleveland Underwater Explorers, Cleveland Underwater Explorers (CLUE). Accessed .
  2. List of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes (Lake Erie section), Wikipedia. Accessed .
  3. 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 .
  4. 43 U.S. Code 2101 - Findings (Abandoned Shipwreck Act), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of the U.S. Code). Accessed .
  5. 43 U.S. Code 2102 - Definitions (Abandoned Shipwreck Act), Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (text of the U.S. Code). Accessed .
  6. Ohio Revised Code 1506.32 - Application for salvage permit for submerged watercraft or aircraft, Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Accessed .

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