Dan Lindsay has been diving for 25 years, with six years spent in the commercial diving industry. He worked as Diver-EMT with Canadian-based companies in the Beaufort Sea, Davis Strait and the Great Lakes. Dan is now an Electronics-Electrician by trade, but his greater love is in deep water wreck exploration, video photography and film making. Through his company, SeaView Imaging, he has created video from the Red Sea, the Andrea Doria, Tobermory, The Empress of Ireland and most recently, this historic production on the maritime history of Lake Erie’s Long Point.
Helping Dan Lindsay to put this video together is John Veber. With his expertise in sailing vessel architecture, historic knowledge of Long Point and underwater photography, John has contributed greatly to the making of this video.
John Veber has been diving for 25 years. John has been an avid underwater photographer in the Great Lakes with shipwrecks being his passion. Some of John’s underwater photos have appeared in several books about Lake Erie. John has participated on numerous licensed archeological marine surveys. He is also a past member of the Ontario Marine Heritage Committee.
SHIPWRECKS OF LONG POINT
The legends and lure of Long Point are as long as the point. Once having an actual cut through the origin of the point during the l800’s, the point now protrudes as a peninsula a distance of 25 miles from the northern shoreline. Travel by ship on the lakes during the l860’s was at an all time high and of all of the lakes, Lake Erie seemed to attract the most activity. The popular run from Buffalo to Detroit often ended in the Long Point area. During the earlier years of shipping, the point was a virtual magnet for shipping disasters.
Because the point was a navigational gateway for travel up and down the lake, sail vessels would try to head toward the shelter of the land spit during storms and quite often be driven onto it or founder in the violent seas that can occur here. The early steamers fared not much better, with their limited steam ability of four to five knots in a gale. This left opportunity for navigational hazards in the fierce storms that can erupt in Lake Erie.
Shipwreck incidents in this area reach more than 200. Previously, many of these wrecks had not been found and/or visited due to extremely poor visibility and the ever present danger of fishing nets. Now, the zebra mussel population has given us remarkable visibility and laid down many fishing nets. Modern technology has in recent years provided the means for finding these wrecks.
Some deeper waters off Long Point have been producing remarkably intact shipwrecks. The tug Smith, with its intact wheelhouse and the Mystery Schooner X, with both masts standing, bring forth the history of yesteryear shipping in the Great Lakes.
