David Frew

Shipwrecks of Lake Erie: Tragedy in the Quadrangle (Disaster) David Frew

As the shallowest of the Great Lakes, Lake Erie is prone to sudden, steep waves and dense fogs. These deadly conditions were hazardous to steamers that crossed on busy nineteenth-century trade routes and ships that battled on its surface in the War of 1812. It was the poor visibility of a summer haze that claimed the steamer Atlantic and approximately two hundred of its immigrant passengers in 1852. The 1916 Black Friday Storm destroyed four ships, including the "unsinkable" whaleback James B Colgate, during the twenty-hour tantrum. Tragedies continued well into the twentieth century with the loss of fishing tugs like the Aletha B, Richard R and Stanley Clipper. A veritable graveyard, Lake Erie's Quadrangle might be responsible for more shipwrecks per square mile than any other region in the world. Author David Frew dives deep to discover the mysteries of some of Lake Erie's most notorious wrecks.