The hottest dive site this summer has got to be the wreck of the Niagara II. Early in May the 110 foot-long freighter was towed out into Georgian Bay, filled with dynamite and with much fanfare, sent to the bottom of the lake.
Ontario's newest dive site is close to Tobermory; a village once considered to be the centre of freshwater wreck diving in North America. The town, located at the tip of the Bruce Pennisula is the gateway to the federally controlled Fathom Five Underwater Park.
On first blush, the sinking of the Niagara II appears to be a case of bringing coal to Newcastle. However, if one thinks about it, the action by the town's dive industry makes sense. The sinking of the Niagara II is Tobermory's way of bringing divers back to this remote town.
Although there are more than enough wrecks within the Fathom Five Park to keep a diver busy for a week or two of intensive diving, Tobermory's dive retailers have noticed that in recent years, the number of divers visiting the community (and spending money) has dropped off. There are reasons for the decline in the number of dive visits; fewer people are learning to dive, divers tired of seeing the same wrecks in Tobermory are going to recently opened dive centres in Lake Erie and the St Lawrence; many of the Tobermory wrecks are deep and difficult to dive and people have died attempting to see the wrecks.
The Niagara II addresses all of those concerns. The ship sits in 80 feet of water, with the top of her superstructure in 50 feet. The wreck is visually interesting, safe and easy for the dive boats to reach.
Want to take a look? Darryl Koster, an Ontario based webmaster has posted pictures and a video of the sinking of the Niagara II. This website is free and can be accessed at: http://www.scubaont.com.
The History of Diving In Windsor!
Back in the 1960s when the sport of scuba diving was in its infancy, a group of Windsor, Ontario underwater enthusiasts built their own dive equipment. According to a new book tracing the history of the Windsor Skin and Scuba Club, two of the first sport divers in the city were Paul and Walter Cole. The two teenage brothers "didn't have money for scuba tanks, but they did have plans for a two-cylinder, hand-operated billows pump with bladders and a lever that could rock back and forth. They connected that to a face mask and an old air hose from a tire pump at a gas station. There wasn't enough pressure for anything deeper than 30 feet!"
By June 1974, with access to dive equipment and dive shops opening in the border city, Windsor divers bought real tanks and regulators, banded together and formed the Windsor Skin and Scuba Club. Fun. Training. Wreck diving and conservation have been the watchwords for this club and as a result it continues to attract new members.
To mark its quarter century Herb Colling has published a 116 page history of the club. The book chronicles in text and photographs, the activities of the hundreds of people (including this columnist) who have at one time or another dived with the club.
The book is available for purchaseat $20 per copyand can be ordered from Herb Colling at Box 1377, Belle River, Ontario.
New Government Guidelines for world famous wreck
The worst Canadian marine accident was the 1914 sinking of the Empress of Ireland. Bound from Quebec City to Liverpool, England the passenger liner collided with the coal carrying steamer Storstad and quickly sank to the bottom about 20 kilometres east of Rimouski in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Only 465 of the 1477 people on board survived the accident.
The Empress of Ireland is visited by divers. However, this is a difficult dive because divers must brave the cold dark depths, racing currents, and myriad entrapments that exist inside her forbidding hull. In May the Quebec Government, concerned about the conservation of the wreck of the Empress and the safety of scuba divers declared the ship a conservation site.
According to a report in the Montreal Gazette , the shipwreck has been declared the first underwater heritage site in Quebec, and also benefits from protection under Canada's merchant marine legislation. Following the May 12th announcement, the Cana dian Coast Guard put up a buoy marking the watery grave of the Empress of Ireland. It warns divers they must have a government permit to remove anything from the sunken ocean liner.
"It is like a big coffin," the paper quotes Bertrand Blanchet, Roman Catholic bishop of Rimouski. "We have a moral duty to ensure respect for this shipwreck as for any cemetery."
But it's been fixed!
The Road To The Wreck Was Wrecked
It is often said that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. For years, in Cardinal, Ontario, the road to good diving has simply been Hell. Well, that is all about to change and a group of St. Lawrence River divers promise by the fall the lane leading to the wreck of The Conestoga will be simply heaven!
The Conestoga is a popular St Lawrence River wreck dive in Cardinal, Ontario (near Brockville). The 19th century ship's smoke stack sticks out of the water making it easy to spot and reach from shore.
The Conestoga is an interesting wreck to explore and every weekend attracts carloads of divers from across Eastern Ontario, Western Quebec and New York State. The popularity of the site has taken its toll on the roadway leading to the edge of the St Lawrence.
"On May 31 1999, the roadway to the wreck of the Conestoga was upgraded significantly. This was made possible by the diving community itself." explained Mark Labelle, Director of Sport Safety with the Ontario Underwater Council and a member of both the Canadian Forces Sub Aqua Club and the Beavers Clubs in Ottawa
"There are no longer any pot holes. Some people have even joked that we might have to put some speed bumps in or put up speed limit signs," continued Mr. Labelle. " The road could still use more crushed stone and we hope to have the repairs done by the fall."
Many dive clubs and businesses in the region donated funding to pay for the road repairs. [For a complete list of contributors and to learn more about the group's fund raising drive, please see Diver Magazine's website]
The new road is not the only reason that divers are visiting the district this summer. Divers in nearby Prescott sunk a wooden ship this spring the St. Lawrence River's newest wreck is reachable from shore!
A Drive for Dive Road Repairs
Anyone wishing to make donations towards the repairs of the road leading to the wreck of Conestoga may mail cheques to either of the following two addresses with a short note indicating the money is for the Conestoga's roadway repairs:
PO Box 400
Cardinal, Ont
K0E 1E0
Ontario Underwater Council
1185 Eglington Ave, East
North York, On
M3C 3C6
The following have all ready sponsored work on the roadway with contributions of $100 or more:
- Ontario Underwater Council
- Forces Sub Aqua Club
- Wet Owls Scuba Club
- Ottawa Beavers Scuba Club
- Seaway Valley Divers
- Save Ontario Shipwrecks (Ottawa)
- Adventures in Diving
- Divers Wearhouse
- Ron's Skin & Scuba
- Polite Sand and Gravel