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Margaret Olwill

Ohio waters · lost 1899

  • Storm
  • Lives lost: 8–9

No public position. General area: About eight miles off Lorain, Ohio.

Margaret Olwill
Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Toned for this site.

Overloaded with Kelleys Island limestone for Cleveland's breakwater, the steam barge Margaret Olwill capsized in an unexpected June gale off Lorain in 1899. Eight or nine people died, among them the captain's wife and young son. A searcher who had hunted for her for decades found the wreck in 2017.

The story

The Margaret Olwill was built in 1887 in the Smith brothers' yard on the old Cuyahoga riverbed in Cleveland, a plain wooden bulk carrier designed to load and unload quickly. She was named for the first wife of the family firm's founder.[2,1] Rebuilt in 1890 and again in 1893, she was working by 1894 under an eight-year contract to carry limestone from the quarries of Kelleys Island to Cleveland, where it went into the extension of the harbour's west breakwater.[2]

On her last trip, at the end of June 1899, she sailed from Kelleys Island for Cleveland at midnight with about 900 tons of limestone, roughly two thirds of it loaded on deck above the hatches.[2,3] The weather was already turning. Aboard were Captain John Brown's wife and young son and a family friend, as well as a crew drawn largely from the captain's relatives and friends.[2] In a northeast gale off Lorain her wheel chains parted as she came about, the heavy deck load shifted, and she capsized and sank.[1,2]

Passing steamers found survivors clinging to wreckage. The HCGL record counts seven rescued by the steamer State of Ohio and the tug Cascade and nine dead; Wikipedia gives at least eight dead.[1,2] Among those lost were the captain's wife and son.[2]

The wreck stayed hidden for more than a century. A diver who had searched over 60 square miles for nearly three decades found her on July 26, 2017, working with the Cleveland Underwater Explorers and the National Museum of the Great Lakes, and the find was confirmed by her steeple-type steam engine.[2,3] Ohio Sea Grant describes the bow rising about 14 feet off a mud bottom in about 50 feet of water, with the anchor chains still running into the silt.[3]

Sources differ: June 28 (Wikipedia, Ohio Sea Grant) or June 29, 1899 (HCGL).

Lives lost: Wikipedia: at least eight; HCGL: nine.

Questions people ask

Why did the Margaret Olwill sink?

She was heavily loaded with limestone, much of it on deck, when a June 1899 gale struck off Lorain, Ohio. Her steering chains parted as she turned, the load shifted and she capsized.

When was the Margaret Olwill found?

On July 26, 2017, by a long-time searcher working with the Cleveland Underwater Explorers and the National Museum of the Great Lakes.

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. HCGL vessel record: OLWILL, MARGARET, Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Bowling Green State University. Accessed .
  2. SS Margaret Olwill, Wikipedia. Accessed .
  3. Ohio Sea Grant, Shipwrecks & Maritime Tales: Margaret Olwill, Ohio Sea Grant College Program. 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 .
  8. List of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes (Lake Erie section), Wikipedia. Accessed .

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