There are a few wrecks out in the Lake that I haven't had the chance to visit yet, but amongst those closer to shore it's rare to come across something new. Today provided the chance to explore a site that had been spotted from the air. It's in the Bateau Channel and, when first sighted, seemed to promise quite a lot. Aerial pictures appeared to show the outline of a vessel quite clearly, in shallow water. Today's visit therefore provided a mixed bag of results. The wreck is indeed present. It's about 250 feet long - a substantial ship - but most of the site is very flat. That's to be expected, it's quite shallow and will have been degraded over the years by ice action and wave motion. But, the bow and stern can be made out quite distinctly, and there's much of the timberwork on site. It seems likely that the ship was iron clad, but not many of the plates are immediately evident. Named bricks were seen on the site, so there's a possibility that they may contribute to identification.
I'm not sure that this will be a very popular location to visit; it's relatively undistinguished as a dive site, but the size of the ship is quite remarkable. The picture, by the way, shows the stern, lying on its starboard side.
Afternote: Thanks to Rick Neilson and Tom Rutledge it's been possible to identify this wreck. It is very likely the Chicora. The link gives a great insight into a very interesting ship. The tragedy is that her remains do her past very little credit. If you plan to visit, do be wary of the shoal just to the North of the site - and one section of the bow, which lies just a foot or two beneath the surface.
2 comments:
Wreck is called the Chicora, Civil War Blockade runner
Tom - thanks for that. We had feedback from Rick Neilson too. You both identified the wreck as the Chicora - later the Warrenko.
Really grateful for the info..
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