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Two Fannies

41.56° N, 81.92° W (rounded) · Ohio waters · lost 1890

  • Foundered
  • Lives lost: None recorded

41.56° N, 81.92° W · Rounded; not a dive position. Source: Ohio Sea Grant, Shipwrecks & Maritime Tales: Two Fannies.[2]

The old three-masted bark Two Fannies sprang a leak under tow in August 1890 and sank about twenty miles from Cleveland with a load of iron ore. Her captain, crew and the captain's niece, carrying a kitten, rowed through the night toward the city's lights and were all rescued.

The story

The Two Fannies was built in 1862 by George O. Spear at Peshtigo, Wisconsin, a wooden three-masted bark of about 150 feet, first enrolled at Chicago that August.[1] She was built to carry lumber and iron ore. Her master, Captain Alfred Miller of Kenosha, owned half of her, and partners in Hillsdale and Kenosha held the rest.[2]

In August 1890 she was bound from Escanaba, Michigan, for Cleveland with iron ore, towed by the tug Crusader.[1] She had recently been in dry dock at Cleveland, where her bottom was recaulked and new pumps fitted. Coming out of the Detroit River into a heavy sea, she began to leak; the crew kept her clear with the pumps for a while, but as the waves grew, water came in faster. Shortly before midnight her towline parted or was let go, and she soon stopped answering her rudder.[2]

Captain Miller ordered everyone into the yawl, and they pulled away just before she plunged. Eight people were aboard the small boat: the captain, the crew and his niece Alice Stowell, who had sailed in the vessel for nine seasons and brought along a kitten her daughter had given her. They rowed for hours toward the lights of Cleveland, failing to attract several passing tugs. Near the city the steamer City of Detroit hauled two of them aboard, and the tug James Amadeus brought in the rest. No one died.[2,1]

The HCGL record dates the loss to August 10, 1890, about twenty miles off Cleveland, and Wikipedia's list of Great Lakes shipwrecks records that she sank after springing a leak in heavy seas.[1,3] Ohio Sea Grant places the wreck in about sixty feet of water some five miles north of Bay Village, the town once called Dover.[2]

Lives lost: All eight aboard reached safety after a night in the yawl.

Questions people ask

Did anyone die when the Two Fannies sank?

No. All eight people aboard escaped in the yawl, rowed through the night toward Cleveland and were picked up by the steamer City of Detroit and the tug James Amadeus.

Where is the Two Fannies wreck?

In about sixty feet of water roughly five miles north of Bay Village, Ohio, 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.[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: TWO FANNIES, Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Bowling Green State University. Accessed .
  2. Ohio Sea Grant, Shipwrecks & Maritime Tales: Two Fannies, Ohio Sea Grant College Program. Accessed .
  3. List of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes (Lake Erie section), Wikipedia. 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 .

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