This is our second explorer story from Canada?s 35 Million Directors project. Share your Canada with...

This is our second explorer story from Canada?s 35 Million Directors project. Share your Canada with the rest of the world by submitting your best Canadian video and photos.

Wreck Diving in Ontario

by Steve Biggs

I live in Ajax, Ontario and consider myself to be a very active scuba diver and an amateur photographer.? I love to try and share my experiences underwater with family and friends through photography and videography.? Although Ontario waters don?t offer the warmth, incredible visibility, and colorful reefs found in Caribbean diving, they do offer the very unique opportunity to be a part of marine history on the Great Lakes with at least 1,200 discovered shipwrecks of various types and from different eras.? The cold, deep freshwater of the Great Lakes preserves the wood many of these ships were constructed from.? In fact, the series of wrecks represented by my photo submissions are all between 135 and 159 years old!

Ontario offers a number of excellent dive locations including many in eastern Lake Ontario near Kingston, in the St. Lawrence River near Brockville, and in Lake Huron/Georgian Bay near Tobermory.? Over the course of the Ontario dive season (usually starting in May and ending in October) I will dive all these locations at least once, and sometimes more often.? Wreck diving in Ontario not only exposes you to marine history, but it also is a great way to see the countryside and experience small town life while making the road trips to dive destinations.

The four pictures I submitted come from three different weekend dive trips I took this past summer.? Below is a bit of information about each of the pictures.

The Wreck of the Katie Eccles

This shot was taken on an annual Victoria Day Weekend trip I take with friends to Ducks Dive Charters and Cottages near Point Traverse.? The Katie Eccles was a 95? long 122-ton schooner built in 1877 that foundered in November 1922 in deep water.? The wreck sits in about 100? of water that was around 40F at this time of year.? I love that this wreck sits upright and is intact, giving you a real sense of what it would have been like to be aboard her when she was hauling coal from Oswego, New York.

The City of Sheboygan

This picture was taken during the same weekend as the Katie Eccles shot.? The City of Sheboygan was a 135? three masted schooner that launched in 1871.? After a 45 year career she foundered in a violent storm in 1915, taking the lives of the captain and crew of four.? This is another deep wreck at 105?.? In this shot three divers are swimming under one of the fallen masts.? What I like most about this picture is the warming effect of the sun shining through a hundred feet of frigid water and silhouetting my dive companions.

The Wreck of the Arabia

This picture was taken during a weekend trip to Tobermory to dive in the incredible blue waters of Lake Huron/Georgian Bay.? Where Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence River are tinted green by the algae in the water, the cold waters surrounding Tobermory are as blue as the Caribbean Sea, although they are frigidly cold at depth even in the hottest days of summer.? The Arabia was a 131? barque built in 1853 that began taking on water in heavy seas in 1884 and sank.? It is one of the most intact wrecks in this area, with it?s most impressive feature being it?s prominent bowsprit.? There is so much to see on this wreck that one has to be careful not to get too distracted by it as it is one of the deepest wrecks in the area lying in 110? of water.

The Wreck of the Forest City

This picture was taken during the same weekend as the Arabia.? The Forest City, built in 1870, was a 213? three masted schooner that was converted to a steamer after just two years.? In a dense fog in 1904 she ran full steam into the steep, rocky shoreline of Bear?s Rump Island and sank.? The bow of the ship lies in 60? of water while the stern drops to 150?.? This wreck provides an excellent example of how depth can preserve a ship.? Due to water movement, the bow has completely collapsed and all that remains is a pile of 100 year old lumber.? However, the stern is still intact, protected from damaging wave action by its extreme depth.

Source: http://canadakeepexploring.tumblr.com/post/31085825968

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