Lake Ontario Maritime History

 

 

                                                                                 John Taibi collection

  New York Spectator, Wed., Dec. 7, 1842   The Late Gale. - It is but seldom that we have to record so many disasters on our inland waters as it has been our misfortune to do within the past few days. A great many lives have been lost, and a large amount of property destroyed. Among the shipwrecks on Lake Ontario was the Schooner Sir Francis Bond Head, off the harbor of Toronto. We copy the following account of this disaster from a late Toronto paper, and in doing so, we record another humane act of Capt. Richardson senr., commander of the steamer Transit, and his son who commands the steamer Queen.  This is only one of the many instances in which Capt. Richardson has risked his life to save his fellow seamen. The life boat spoke of is very small, only intended for one man. The chief object of keeping it on board the Transit is to throw it overboard, as a life buoy, in case any one should fall overboard.  On Thursday last the Sir Francis was riding at anchor, in t...

                      Wreck of the Schooner William L. Marcy                     Schooner William L. Marcy looked much like this (Oswego County Whig, Wednesday, July 25, 1838) [From the Watertown Jeffersonian]     Shipwreck. - The lives of but few persons furnish incidents as appalling as that given below. The account may be in some of the particulars incorrect, as it was penned in a hurried manner, from the lips of one of the sufferers. The new schooner, William L. Marcy, Captain Miner, belonging to Messrs. S. & H. Cook, of Ellisburgh, on her trip from Ellis' village to Oswego, was on the evening of the 10th inst. capsized in a gale of wind, off Mexico Bay.     The gale was preceded by a dead calm. Upon the first appearance of the storm, every precaution was made use of, to prepare the vessel for its encounter. It is here proper to state that she wa...

Watertown Daily Times Thursday, August 21, 1873                              The Chaumont Launch                                   A Kind of a Fizzle     Wednesday wasn’t much of a day for launches - although the railroad carried passengers at half fare and the weather was full fair.  Chaumont launches are peculiar - very- and the launch Wednesday so widely advertised was more so. There is nothing like a Chaumont launch except the kind which grows at Three Mile Bay.     Several people went to Chaumont yesterday from this city - on business. One man went after some ciscoes for supper, another to inspect the stone quarry, another to see Lawrence Gaige personally, another to the dance at Reed’s, another to sell horse collars, another to take advantage of the half fare rate and to take a ride, another to see...

  Rochester Republican         October 18, 1848        LOSS OF THE SCHOONER MILAN of OSWEGO        We are indebted to Capt. Robert Richardson for the following particulars of the foundering of his vessel on Wednesday morning, about fifteen miles off the mouth of Oak Orchard Creek on Lake Ontario. The Milan sailed from Oswego at 11 o'clock on the morning of the 9th, with a crew of seven men, bound for Cleveland, with a cargo of 1000 barrels of salt. About half past 2 o'clock on the morning of Wednesday, while the master was on the watch, the men in the forecastle were awakened by the splashing of water therein, and it was found that there was 18 inches of water on the floor. The vessel at this time was about ten miles from the South shore, North of the "Devils nose."      The crew immediately resorted to the pumps, and commenced removing the salt from the forward hold. Meanwhile the water continued to gai...

Syracuse Post-Standard November 28, 1920 Frank Phelps' Shipyard at Chaumont ____ Of the Many That Once Nourished Along the Lake Shore It Alone Remains. ____ Of all the ship building plants that once flourished along the Jefferson county shore bf Lake Ontario, a single yard, that of Frank Phelps, at Chaumont, now remains. Few new crafts have been laid down there of late years, but repairs are still carried on, and the lone ship builder exhibits all the resource which characterized the pioneer yards in the days before steam power was known upon these inland waters, and when a 300 ton schooner was considered a craft of remarkable dimensions. In the earlier days the lakes and the St. Lawrence river afforded the means of transportation and communication for this region. Bay and streams, now blocked by shoals and closed to the modern mariner, were open to the navigator of those days, and the demand for ships from the smaller ports was brisk where to-day it has disappeared. Lumbe...

Thousand Islands Sun April 11, 1968 Story related on early Depauville shipbuilding Depauville-- A number of steamers ran between the villages of Chaumont and Depauville on the Chaumont river during the mid and late 1880’s. There is an interesting account written some time ago by the late Frank D. Lowe of Watertown native and long time resident of Depauville. The story refers to the operation of the little river of the “Watson Wright” a steamer built in Depauville. The Chaumont river extends six miles from Chaumont to Depauville. At the time the Civil war broke out an appropriation was made by the state legislature for dredging and removing all obstructions to navigation in the stream and when this work was done a basin was made at a spot know as the Dr. Frederick Dale place. This home is now occupied by Clarence Dorr on Caroline street. The purpose of the basin was to aid vessels while turning around and the wharf was about 40 feet east of the basin and was located in part of what was ...

  Syracuse Herald November 27, 1915 Chaumont Cisco is Returning Fishermen Report, seeing Famous Little Fish. Missing For Years Year ago Cisco Money Paid off Many a Farm Mortgage and Fishermen Delighted at Reappearance of the Lake Herring . Watertown, Nov. 27-  Chaumont Ciscoes as the little lake herring were known, which a generation or two ago crowded the bays and coves of the eastern end of Lake Ontario during the late fall to be taken in hundred-barrel hauls by great seines and shipped by trainloads to grace breakfast tables all over this section, are reported to be returning to the waters of Lyme, Brownville, Hounsfield, Henderson and Ellisburg. Before their strange disappearance about 1875, they furnished profitable employment during the late November and early December to hundreds of dwellers along the shore, many a farm in the above towns having been paid for with Cisco money. The name "Chaumont ciscoes" given to the little fish is something of a misnomer, for...

 Rochester Telegraph, Dec. 15, 1818 SHIP NEWS. PORT OF GENESEE Arrived. Nov. 24. - Sch. Woolsey, Conger, from Sacket's Harbor; Julia, Chapman,Ogdensburgh. 26. Henrietta, Bush, Oswego. 28. Betsey, Montagne, Oswego; Sloop Arcadia, Merrit. Dec. 5. Sch. Plow Boy, Vorse, Oswego; Java, Matthews, Oswego. 8. Sch. Levantia, Briggs, Sacket's Harbor 12. - Minerva, Oswego. Sailed. Nov. 27. Sch. Henrietta, Bush, Niagara; Otario, Cherry, Ogdensburgh; Genesee Packet, Mayo, Ogdensburgh; Lady Washington, Peas, Ogdensburgh. Dec. 3. Sch. Betsey, Montagne, Oswego; Woolsey, Johnson, Sackets Harbor; Julia, Chapman, Sackets Harbor. (Note: The"Meteorological Journal" kept at Rochester, published on the same page, shows that the range of temperature on December 12 was 19 at sunrise, 29 at 2 p.m. and 22 at sunset, cloudy with wind out of the northwest - a chilly time to be out on Lake Ontario. One must also take into account there were no beacons on the south side of the lake except atop the ...