DATE OF LAUNCH: March 24, 1883
DATE AND LOCATION OF LOSS: November 9, 1913, Lake Huron, near Goderich Harbor, Ontario
DATE LOCATED: August 25, 2000
SHIP DETAILS: SS Wexford was a steel-hulled, propeller-driven, cargo ship built by William Doxford & Sons. at Sunderland, Great Britain in 1883.
CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE LOSS: The Wexford was under the command of Captain Bruce Cameron, 26, of Gollingwood and was downbound with a load of grain from the Lakehead to Goderich. The Wexford’s whistle could be heard as it approached Goderich harbor in the height of the storm but the ship and crew all vanished.
Captain Bruce Cameron, who had sailed for nearly ten years, was the second son of Captain Alex Cameron. Captain Bruce Cameron had just been married in the spring of 1912 and the Wexford was his first command.
Others lost with the ship were chief engineer James Scott, assistant engineer Richard Loughead, watchman Allan Dobson and Orrin Gordon all of Collingwood. Mr. and Mrs. George Willmott had taken jobs as stewards aboard the Wexford and were planning to return to Bristol, England, at the close of the shipping season.
DISCOVERY AND FINDINGS: The ship was discovered on August 25, 2000 by a local salmon fisherman.
Donald Chalmers discovered the wreck when his fish-finder detected an anomaly on the bottom of the lake. “This researcher brought in all this expensive equipment and Chalmers found it with a hundred dollar fish-finder,” said Tim Cummings, editor of the Goderich Signal Star.
INTERESTING FACTS: The wreck is sitting intact and upright in 75 feet of water on the lake bottom. A copper wreath was placed on the wreck to honor the crew of the 100th Anniversary of The Great Storm of 1913.
Principled Thoughts 