An independent referenceOhio · Pennsylvania · New York · Michigan · Ontario
Lake Erie Gazetteerlakeerie.info

North Carolina

41.73° N, 81.38° W (rounded) · Ohio waters · lost 1968

  • Cause unknown
  • Lives lost: None recorded

41.73° N, 81.38° W · Rounded; not a dive position. Source: Ohio Sea Grant, Shipwrecks & Maritime Tales: North Carolina.[1]

The Great Lakes Towing Company tug North Carolina, built in 1908 as the L.C. Sabin, sank off Mentor-on-the-Lake, Ohio, on December 9, 1968, while bound from Cleveland for Buffalo. Her engine room flooded, and the Coast Guard rescued her three crew. Neither of the accounts cited here gives a cause.

The story

The North Carolina was built in 1908 by J.S. Dunham at Chicago as the L.C. Sabin, a harbor tug 81 feet long and 20 feet wide. She was renamed North Carolina in 1941 and converted from steam to diesel power in 1951. When she was lost she belonged to the Great Lakes Towing Company of Cleveland.[1]

On December 9, 1968, she set out from the company's dock at Cleveland for Buffalo, with a stop and a crew change planned at Conneaut. The Cleveland Plain Dealer of the following day, reprinted by Ohio Sea Grant, reported that her engine room began flooding about noon and that her electrical equipment, including the pumps and the radio, seems to have failed at once.[1] Police at Mentor-on-the-Lake noticed her stern sitting low and called the Coast Guard, and a woman watching from her lakefront home saw the tug slow, stop and start to go down.[1] A 40-foot boat from the Coast Guard station at Fairport Harbor took off the three crew. Two more boats carrying salvage pumps, a buoy tender and a helicopter with a pump were also sent, but the tug had already sunk.[1]

The accounts differ in detail. A shipwreck file quoted by Ohio Sea Grant says she radioed for assistance and sank about 1.5 miles off the harbor at Mentor in 30 feet of water; the newspaper put the spot 5 miles west of Fairport Harbor and 1.5 to 2 miles out from Mentor-on-the-Lake, with 32 feet of water.[1] Neither gives a cause, and Wikipedia's list of Lake Erie shipwrecks also records the loss as from an unknown cause.[2]

What happened next is unclear too. A company spokesman told the newspaper he did not know whether the tug would be raised. The shipwreck file mentions reports that she was raised at some point, yet adds that divers still visit her in that area.[1]

Lives lost: A Coast Guard boat from the Fairport Harbor station rescued all three crew.

Questions people ask

Why did the tug North Carolina sink?

No cause was given. Her engine room began flooding about noon on December 9, 1968, off Mentor-on-the-Lake, Ohio, and she sank before Coast Guard pumps arrived. All three crew were rescued.

Is the North Carolina still on the bottom?

It is uncertain. A shipwreck file quoted by Ohio Sea Grant mentions reports that she was raised, but says divers still visit her in that area.

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

Run a heritage-tourism business near North Carolina? Sponsor this page: $79/year. Sponsor this page

Sources

  1. Ohio Sea Grant, Shipwrecks & Maritime Tales: North Carolina, Ohio Sea Grant College Program. 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 .

Page checked . Spotted an error? Send a correction.