115 (barge)
Marker: recorded wreck position (Date not recorded).
Key facts
| Name | 115 (barge) | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Ship type | shipwreck | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Nearest coast | Canada | Natural Earth (public domain) |
| Position | 48.6981, -86.6547 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
115 (also known as Barge 115, No.115, or Whaleback 115) was an American whaleback barge in service between 1891 and 1899. She was built between May and August 1891, in Superior, Wisconsin (or West Superior, Wisconsin) by Alexander McDougall's American Steel Barge Company, for the "McDougall fleet", based in Buffalo, New York. She was one of a class of distinctive, experimental ship designed and built by McDougall. The whalebacks were designed to be more stable in high seas. They had rounded decks, and lacked the normal straight sides seen on traditional lake freighters. 115 entered service on August 25, hauling iron ore from Superior.
In December 1899, while being towed by the whaleback freighter Colgate Hoyt from Two Harbors, Minnesota, for Lake Erie with a load of iron ore, the two vessels encountered a storm. After 40 hours of slow progress across Lake Superior, 115 broke away from Colgate Hoyt at 6:05 a.m., on December 13. Colgate Hoyt searched for her for four hours, but due to the scarcity of fuel on board, she was forced to proceed to Sault Ste. Marie. After drifting around Lake Superior for five days, 115 crashed into Pic Island, near Marathon, Ontario.
Diving & visiting
The wreck of 115 was discovered in 1980 after a major search by wreck hunter Ryan LeBlanc at a depth of between 40 and 80 feet (12.2 and 24.4 m) of water, on a rock bottom. Maritime historian and author Cris Kohl's book, The 100 Best Great Lakes Shipwrecks – Volume II. erroneously states that 115's bow with its turret is intact, whereas dive footage shot in about 1980 shows that her stern and its turret are intact, instead of the bow. The bow section is broken up. Due to the force with which 115 pounded against Pic Island, there are twisted steel plates located as high as 50 feet (15.2 m) on the cliff she wrecked against. Her intact bell was retrieved around the time she was discovered.
Location
- Recorded position: 48.6981, -86.6547 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Nearest coast: Canada
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article 115 (barge) (revision 1370038353), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “115 wreck”; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- SS Monarch 1906 · 143 km
- SS Emperor 146 km
- Chester A. Congdon 148 km
- SS Algoma 1885 · 153 km
- SS Kamloops 1927 · 170 km
- SS Glenlyon 1924 · 176 km
Browse more: North America wrecks · wrecks off Canada