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Success

41.52° N, 82.91° W (rounded) · Ohio waters · lost 1946

  • Fire
  • Lives lost: None recorded

41.52° N, 82.91° W · Rounded; not a dive position. Source: Ohio Sea Grant, Shipwrecks & Maritime Tales: Success.[1]

The teak-built Success was sold to the public for decades as an Australian 'convict ship', touring the world as a floating museum before ending her days near Port Clinton, Ohio. Vandals set her on fire on July 4, 1946. How much of her advertised past was true is still debated.

The story

The Success was built of teak in 1840 at a shipyard in Tenasserim, in what was then Burma, as a full-rigged merchant ship for the silk and emigrant trades, according to a shipwreck directory quoted by Ohio Sea Grant. A flyer handed out aboard claimed she dated from 1790, but the directory notes that Lloyd's does not list her before 1840.[1] Her later life was stranger. The same account says she was turned into a prison hulk at Sydney in 1857, scuttled there in 1885, raised in 1891 and sent touring the world as a 'convict ship' museum.[1]

Re-rigged as a three-masted barkentine, she crossed the Atlantic to the United States in 1912 after a voyage of 98 days, and spent years as a travelling exhibit before being retired at Port Clinton, Ohio, in 1939.[1] On July 4, 1946, vandals set her on fire, and she burned near Port Clinton. No one was hurt.[1,2]

How much of the convict-ship story was true has long been argued. Ohio Sea Grant reprints a 1947 article from the Great Lakes Historical Society's journal Inland Seas, which reports a 1933 letter from Australia, kept at the Chicago Public Library, disputing the authenticity of the ship's claims. That report says she spent 32 years moored as a hulk in Hobson's Bay, Victoria, before an Australian showman bought her in 1885 and fitted her with cells and wax figures to look like a convict transport, and that she was taken to England in 1895 and sold to an American in 1912.[1] The directory adds that she left Liverpool for America on the same day as the Titanic, and that her last owner was Walter Kolbe of Port Clinton.[1]

Ohio Sea Grant places her burned remains near Port Clinton, where she spent her final years.[1]

Questions people ask

Was the Success really a convict ship?

She was exhibited as an Australian convict ship for decades, but the claim was disputed. Ohio Sea Grant reprints a 1947 article reporting a 1933 letter from Australia that challenged the ship's story.

How was the Success lost?

Vandals set her on fire on July 4, 1946, near Port Clinton, Ohio, where she had been retired in 1939. No one was hurt.

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.

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Sources

  1. Ohio Sea Grant, Shipwrecks & Maritime Tales: Success, 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 .
  7. HCGL vessel record: SUCCESS, Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Bowling Green State University. Accessed .

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