New York

MV Great Lakes Diver, Port Sanilac Marina, Michigan. 586 792 2040.

The wreckage belongs to an old woodened steamer differing from many of the other ships in her desgin and means of propulsion. Descending the hundred and some feet down onto an enourmous boiler divers are always excited to see one of her huge wooden bracing arches looming out of the depths; although not entirely intact there still exists enough to provide the basis for visualisation (which is good, as unfortnately no photographs have surfaced to date of the vessel in her prime). The impressive boiler itself once drove an unusual pre-civil war dual oscillating steam engine which enabled the Great Lakes Shipwrecks Exploration Group that discovered the wreck in 1988 to make a positive identification.

The New York was built in Buffalo, New York as a passenger vessel in 1856 but after being heavily damaged in 1874 was converted to a steam barge for the lumber trade. In 1876 she had three other vessels in tow during a storm that eventually separated the four heavily-laden ships and forced the crew of the New York to abandon her to her fate, leaving them some twelve miles from land in a small yawl boat facing squals, snow and waves "Running mountains high" (according to a newspaper report from the time). If not for the determined and heroic rescue effort of those aboard a passing schooner, the entire crew would certainly have perished. As it was, all bar one were saved after several hours adrift.

What remains of this 185 footer, tragically described prior to her sinking as a "Worthless craft, a coffin in almost every sense of the word", makes for an intersting dive. Although broken up, most of the ship is still in situ; two large anchors, keel and decking, portions of gunwhale, the boiler and engine, stack, props, rudder and unmistakeable arch.

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