A web guide to Lake Erie’s shipwrecks and rich maritime history now has a new location, Ohio Sea Grant and partners recently announced.
The website, titled Shipwrecks and Maritime Tales of the Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail, is now available at ohioshipwrecks.info. Accompanying the website are four interactive kiosks at popular tourist locations along the lakeshore.
“The website and kiosks are designed to help Ohio residents and visitors locate and learn about the many historical, cultural, and recreational shipwrecks in Ohio’s Lake Erie waters,” said Ohio Sea Grant Extension Educator Joe Lucente. “As an eco-tourist interested in exploring all Lake Erie has to offer, you will be able to discover the rich maritime history that lies beneath the surface of the lake.”
One of many shipwrecks featured on the website is the F.H. Prince, a sand and gravel freighter that sank off the shore of Kelleys Island in 1911.
More than 1,700 shipwrecks lie at the bottom of Lake Erie, the most of any of the Great Lakes. Of those, only 277 have been found. Shipping has always played a large role in the economic development of Ohio and the Great Lakes region, and the history behind each shipwreck tells part of that story.
Ohio Sea Grant originally developed the website in 2008, later updating it with new information in 2018 through a grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Office of Coastal Management. The goal was to increase awareness of Ohio’s rich maritime heritage, Lucente said, helping people understand the importance of preserving, protecting, and promoting this history.
Now, the website features 33 Lake Erie shipwrecks, offering compiled information on each ship, its wreck site, and the story of the loss. The wrecks featured were selected from an advisory committee composed of local scuba divers and dive clubs, professional dive guides and charter captains, and maritime history professionals. Ohio Sea Grant sourced information from a variety of historical documents and databases.
Kiosks from the project are located at Maumee Bay State Park, the Shores & Islands Ohio Visitors Center, Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve, and the Lake Erie Nature & Science Center.
“Lake Erie Nature & Science Center is excited to bring Ohio Sea Grant’s exhibit and research to its more than 160,000 annual visitors who enjoy free admission seven days each week,” said Catherine Timko, executive director of the Lake Erie Nature & Science Center. “The interactive exhibit recognizes people’s connectedness to Lake Erie and encourages lifelong discovery of its natural history.”
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Office of Coastal Management, the National Museum of the Great Lakes, Cleveland Underwater Explorers Inc. (CLUE) and the Maritime Archaeological Survey Team (MAST) were partners on the project.
For more information, visit the new website or contact Lucente at lucente.6@osu.edu.
Ohio Sea Grant is supported by The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) School of Environment and Natural Resources, Ohio State University Extension, and NOAA Sea Grant, a network of 34 Sea Grant programs nation-wide dedicated to the protection and sustainable use of marine and Great Lakes resources. Stone Laboratory is Ohio State’s island campus on Lake Erie and is the research, education, and outreach facility of Ohio Sea Grant and part of CFAES School of Environment and Natural Resources.