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Wocoken

Ontario waters · lost 1893

This site's location is withheld. In Ontario waters, where the Ontario Heritage Act requires a licence for any work on a marine archaeological site. Position withheld; general area only. This page shows the general area only.

The steam barge Wocoken foundered off the Ontario shore near Long Point in the gale of October 14, 1893, towing a schooner-barge loaded with coal. Fourteen men died, among them her captain. Three survivors tied themselves in the rigging and held on for about 17 hours until lifesavers reached them.

The story

The Wocoken was a wooden propeller built at Cleveland in 1880 by Thomas Quayle's Sons, about 251 feet long and first enrolled at Cleveland that July.[1]

In October 1893 she left Ashtabula, Ohio, for Duluth with a cargo of coal, towing the schooner-barge Joseph Paige.[1] On October 14 a severe gale, which Wikipedia's list of 1893 shipwrecks connects to the Great Charleston Hurricane, caught both vessels off the north shore. The Wocoken foundered about a mile and a half off Clear Creek, Ontario, in some 48 feet of water, and fourteen men died, including her captain.[1,2]

Three survivors lashed themselves in her rigging and held on until they were taken off about 17 hours later.[2] The HCGL vessel record credits their rescue to the Long Point life-saving crew; the Wikipedia list names the United States Life-Saving Service.[1,2] Her last enrollment was surrendered at Cleveland on November 17, 1893, and her engine, boilers and machinery were salvaged the following September.[1,2]

The same gale drove the Joseph Paige aground off Long Point, and at the other end of the lake it sank the steamer Dean Richmond off Dunkirk, New York, with the loss of seventeen of her eighteen people.[3,2] Wikipedia's list of Lake Erie shipwrecks describes the Wocoken as having run aground off Long Point. Her wreck lies in Ontario waters, so this page gives only the general area.[3]

Lives lost: Three men who had lashed themselves in the rigging were saved.

Questions people ask

How did anyone survive the Wocoken sinking?

Three men lashed themselves in her rigging after she sank in about 48 feet of water, and held on until they were rescued about 17 hours later.

How many died on the Wocoken?

Fourteen, including her captain, when she foundered off Clear Creek, Ontario, in the gale of October 14, 1893.

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.

  • Ontario: under the Ontario Heritage Act no one may alter a marine archaeological site or remove an artifact from it without a provincial licence; fines for breaking this rule can reach $1,000,000.[4][5][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. HCGL vessel record: WOCOKEN, Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Bowling Green State University. Accessed .
  2. List of shipwrecks in 1893, Wikipedia. Accessed .
  3. List of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes (Lake Erie section), Wikipedia. Accessed .
  4. law-on-oha-part6, Government of Ontario (e-Laws). Accessed .
  5. law-on-oreg-11-06, Government of Ontario (e-Laws). Accessed .
  6. Atlantic (1848 ship), Wikipedia. Accessed .

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