Canadian singer and song-writer Gord Lightfoot has said that Lake Superior never gives up it’s dead. That cannot be said of Lake Erie. Old ships that sunk to the bottom of Erie a century or more ago continue to be discovered.
The latest was the Margaret Olwill, which sank in 50 feet of water during a storm on Erie in 1889. Eight people died in the sinking of the barge. There were four survivors , who clung to the wreckage. The 119-year-old shipwreck was found at the bottom of Lake Erie.
The Olwill was enroute to Cleveland with 900 tons of limestone when it sank. The announcement of its finding was made by the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo.
The Toledo Blade quoted Rob Ruetschele, a shipwreck hunter, as saying It was a major disaster at the time. Ruetschele eventually found the ship by mapping a 60-square-mile search area.
