“We honestly expected to find a pile of rocks,” say the Canadian documentary film-makers who have discovered the wreck of the Africa, a cargo steamer that disappeared with its crew of 11 in Lake Huron back in 1895.
Husband-and-wife team Yvonne Drebert and Zach Melnick of Inspired Planet Productions have just revealed the discovery they made at a depth of 85m in June, off the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, Canada. They had also been surprised to learn that the cove where they lived had been named after the Africa’s lost captain.
“We received a tip that scientists doing an offshore fish survey had noticed an anomaly on their sonar read-out, basically an unusual bump on an otherwise flat lakebed,” says Melnick. The couple specialise in underwater videography using a Boxfish Luna ROV equipped with an ultra-low-light, hi-res camera system.
“We packed up our robot, grabbed some friends and their dog, and headed out on what we thought would be a fun Saturday boat-ride,” says Drebert. The ROV had been launched into choppy water with no great expectations. “We were down for only a few minutes when a huge structure loomed up from the depths – it was a shipwreck. We couldn’t believe it.”
All Too Clear
For the past two years the couple have been working on a feature-length documentary called All Too Clear: Beneath The Surface Of The Great Lakes, about the “quadrillions” of quagga mussels that now carpet the lakes. Through their extreme filtration they have boosted the underwater visibility and given the film its title.
Quaggas have outcompeted their cousins the zebra mussels since arriving in the Great Lakes in the 1990s, and are “re-engineering the ecosystem of the Great Lakes at a scale not seen since the glaciers”, according to the couple.
“There are so many quaggas filtering the Great Lakes that the lakes are up to three times as clear as they were before the mussels,” says Drebert.
It was this water clarity that enabled the team to see the 85m-deep upright wreck clearly with no additional lights. On the other hand, encrustation by the invasive mussels ruled out any hope of identifying the vessel simply by reading its name on the stern.
Ontario issued an archaeological licence to the film-makers that enabled them to return to film, survey and measure the wreck, with local maritime historian Patrick Folkes and archaeologist Scarlett Janusas called in to help identify it.
Sunk in a snowstorm
The 45m Africa with 8m beam was built in 1873 to carry both passengers and goods but, after burning to the waterline in 1886, it had been rebuilt as a steam barge for cargo only.
On the morning of 4 October, 1895, the Africa left Ashtabula, Ohio in the USA towing another barge, the Severn. Both vessels were loaded with coal bound for Owen Sound in Ontario.
The towline parted during an early-season snowstorm and the Severn ran aground and broke up, known to have been one of many vessels wrecked on the Bruce Peninsula’s western shoals. Its crew were rescued, but the Africa was never seen again.
The dimensions measured on the second ROV dive, and the coal seen in the wreck’s debris field, were enough to confirm the wreck’s identity.
And Melnick and Drebert were surprised to find that the location of their home in Larsen Cove on the Bruce Peninsula had been named in honour of the Africa’s captain Hans P Larsen. In fact the Severn had foundered only a few hundred metres from where they live.
“Before discovering the Africa, our work focused on the ecological impacts of the mussels – which have devastated fisheries around the lakes,” says Melnick.
“We hadn’t considered the effect they could have on our cultural heritage, but the mussels have truly changed everything in the deep waters of the Great Lakes.” Inspired Planet Productions’ All Too Clear is scheduled to be screened next year.
Also on Divernet: Trinidad shines even among Great Lakes wrecks, Diver Tamara’s double discoveries honour Native Americans, State archaeologist dies on warm-up dive, Satellite tug discovered at 90m in Lake Superior, Tech-divers’ dream: 150-year-old masts-up schooner
