DATE OF LAUNCH: June 25, 1890
DATE AND LOCATION OF LOSS: October 13, 1902, Lake Erie, between Cleveland, Ohio and Ashtabula, Ohio
DATE LOCATED: October 17, 1902, relocated August 7, 2010
SHIP DETAILS: The C.B. Lockwood was built in 1890 and at 303 feet long was one of the largest wooden vessels to be built. A bulk carrier rated to 2323 tons, she was powered by a triple expansion steam engine turning a 13.5 foot propeller. Even though the Lockwood was a wide ship, with a 45 foot beam, she set a speed record for wooden ships traveling between Sault Ste. Marie, MI and Duluth, MN by carrying a load of 1650 tons of coal at an average speed of 13 mph.
CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE LOSS: In October of 1902 the Lockwood was taking a 100,000 bushels of flaxseed from Duluth, MN to Buffalo, NY. On October 13, while crossing Lake Erie she got caught in a storm. She fought her way through the storm across the lake and around 4:00pm the Lockwood’s engineer reported to the captain the he was not getting sufficient steam and suspected a line pipe might have burst.
The engineer believed that if they let off steam they might be able to get at and repair the pipe. So some 15 miles west of Ashtabula, OH the captain ordered the Lockwood to anchor and let off steam. Unfortunately the repairs were unsuccessful and without steam the ships pumps could not run. The Lockwood was now at the mercy of the storm.
With waves crashing over the bow and deck the Lockwood began taking on water and without pumps to remove that water the captain ordered the crew to prepare the life boats and be ready to abandon ship. At 6:40pm the crew lowered 2 life boats into the water. One life boat, a 13 person wooden yawl, had the captain, his wife, and 7 other crew members. The other life boat, a larger 20 person steel life boat, had the engineer and 9 other crew members. At 7:15pm the crew watched the CB Lockwood plunge below the waves.
The life boats soon got separated in the storm. The captain and crew in the yawl found it only had one oar and in an attempt to gain some control rigged a makeshift sail out of the captain’s wife’s shawl. They spent the next ten hours being battered by waves and wind until the steel steamer GJ Grammer rescued them only 1 mile west of Ashtabula.
The captain and crew waited for news that the remainder of the crew had been rescued, but as the hours grew to days, hope dwindled. Four days after abandoning ship the steel life boat was finally found, upside down and empty. The remaining crew would not return home.
DISCOVERY AND FINDINGS: The wreck was quickly located since the masts on the Lockwood stuck out of the water by about 10 feet. In late October the USS Michigan was dispatched to survey the wreck and determine if it was a hazard to navigation. The USS Michigan found the wreck was in 72 feet of water and had no less than 50 feet of water above it excluding the masts. A black and white flag was tied to the main mast to help identify the wreck. The flag and mast would disappear within a week.
Due to the potential threat to navigation, the ship would continue to be marked on navigation charts until 1934.
INTERESTING FACTS: In 1989, a search group attempted to locate the Lockwood. A small sonar target was identified near the historical location of the ship. In May, a dive turned up several davits and a bollard. A depression was noted in the silt bottom and at the bottom of that depression was what appeared to be the top of a wood cabin. There was a hole for what was presumed to be the cooking vent. Shining a light in the hole only revealed an empty void. The search crew decided the cabin and other debris were likely from the Lockwood but had separated from the ship while sinking. They continued searching the area but found no more wreckage. It seemed the Lockwood had just disappeared, given the well documented historical location of the wreck.
In 2001 another group searching for the wreck using a magnetometer identified 2 large anomalies in their search area. Sonar readings and subsequent dives turned up no evidence of the wreck.
In 2006, a different group identified several small objects with sonar scans. A dive to the objects identified them as a bollard and a davit, probing the silt with a 6 foot pole revealed no solid objects beneath them.
The 2006 search group returned in 2007, adjusting and expanding their search area. No wreckage was found, and like all the previous searches various trenches and depressions were noted.
With knowledge that the wreck was likely completely buried in silt, the last search group returned to the site again in 2010 with a different type of surveying equipment. Using a sub-bottom profiler the group could map large features below the lake bottom. On August 7th, 2010 the group found a large object 15 feet below the silt surface. After tracing back and forth across the object, a profile was created.
The profile of a ship emerged and can be clearly seen after composing the images. The size of the object and the orientation match historical records of the C.B. Lockwood. After 21 years of searching, the wreck of the C.B. Lockwood had been found and it was buried completely, with the top of the ship being 15 feet below the silt surface.
Principled Thoughts 