When Matt Vermette went for a walk along Kingsville’s Lake Erie Shoreline on Wednesday, November 26, he hoped to spot some small trinkets and treasures uncovered by the seiche that was created by the strong southwesterly winds.
What he found was a shipwreck in the lakebed that dates back over 100 years.
The hull of a schooner sat visible about 200-300 yards out in the lake as the water had receded to fully display the vessel.
“I just wanted to go for a walk,” he said. “Anytime the water’s out, you never know what you’ll find.”
A seiche is a phenomenon where a strong wind such as we witnessed last Wednesday, pushes the water to the far end of the lake. It was reported that Buffalo, NY’s lake levels rose 11 feet during the storm, while levels at this end of the lake dropped drastically.
Still, Vermette says some of the older folks in the diving circles only remember one other time over the years when the lake has receded that far.
Vermette, the owner of The Dive Shop in Kingsville, says that it’s the first shipwreck he’s ever seen when not scuba diving.
The wreck has been spotted before, but is usually only barely visible under the surface of the lake.
“John Karry has been out there before and measured it,” he says.
Vermette says it could be one of two possible wrecks attributed to that location.
It could be the Demming, which is reported to have been sticking out of the water “as recently as 1908”, according to an old publication he found.
Also, a schooner out of Detroit called the Overton is said to have sunk outside of Kingsville Harbour in October of 1877.
The wreck sits off the end of Harbourview Drive near Lakeside Park and now that he knows it’s there, Vermette will be looking a little more closely in the future.
