Original Story by Phil Egan at The Sarnia Journal.
Drone photo, courtesy of David Cooke, inskyphoto.com
David Cooke was puzzled, and more than a little dubious.
Sitting in a barber shop on Lakeshore Road, he listened to an older gentleman describe an old wreck situated in Lake Huron’s waters just over 100 feet off Canatara Park’s beach.
Cooke, who had grown up on Christina Street just steps from Canatara, knew nothing about it.
“”I had my own sailboat,” Cooke told The Sarnia Journal, “and sailed back and forth across that stretch of water a thousand times. I never knew it was there.”
Determined to uncover the mystery, the former military pilot trekked over to the beach last Wednesday with his Phantom 4 camera-equipped drone – and there it was, lying in shallow, clear water. Cooke sent his photos to The Journal seeking additional information. What vessel was this, and how long had it been there?
As it turned out, David Cooke wasn’t the only one who didn’t have the answers. Queries directed to the Canadian Coast Guard, the Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the local OPP detachment’s marine unit, and Transport Canada all drew blanks. Barry Mattingley, a retired Sarnia firefighter and scuba diver, said that he’d dived on the wreck a number of times, but didn’t recall its name.
Slowly, the answers began to emerge. A YouTube video of the wreck posted online drew some readers’ comments and speculation as to ships’ names. Michele at the Sarnia Yacht Club was certain that the wreck had been there since 1923.
In the end, it was the website of an organization called “Saving Ontario’s Shipwrecks” followed by some additional online searching that filled in the gaps.
In 1888, an American shipbuilder in Cleveland named W. Radcliffe constructed a wooden cargo bulk carrier named the Gladstone. The 2,112-ton vessel was 283 feet in length with a 40 foot beam, and was employed hauling iron ore and other material through the Great Lakes – an older version of the lake freighters that still ply these waters today.
In 1918, while Gladstone was lying at her winter moorings in Pine River, Michigan on Lake St. Clair, her hull was crushed by an ice jam, rendering her unseaworthy. The wreck was purchased by C. Peel of Chatham, Ontario. In 1923, she was brought here to Sarnia to serve as a breakwater.
The online “Great Lakes Shipwreck File” confirms that this is indeed the vessel whose remains lie today off Canatara Park beach. A few years ago, when Great Lakes waters were extremely low, parts of the wreck actually lay mere feet below the water, briefly posing a maritime hazard for small boaters.
Perhaps it was just the Gladstone trying to remind us of her presence, some 80 years after she was finally laid to rest.