Show I r Wealth in li-i Ships i Lies on Erie Bed I II I Item b irs Sunken Ct Ib Far s From Cash lo to Locomotives LORAINE Rich treasures not not gold cold doubloons but every thin from cash to whisky and locomotives tives lie Ile lie on the bottom of Lake Erie a 8 survey of records here shows The wrecks of ships lie scattered over the bottom of the shallowest of f the Great Groat Lakes whose Lakes whose average depth is less les than feet feet but but ore neglected by treasure treasur hunters who go instead to tropical Islands to search for legendary pirates' pirates gold Valuable cargoes have gone down on the ships that travel the Inland seas One of the known better-known lake tragedies was that of the ship Erie I commanded by Capt T T. J J. J Titus Sailing Salling from Buffalo Duffalo for Chicago on the afternoon of August 9 9 1841 ISU an on explosion rocked her decks as os she was about 33 miles out Panic Paolo Followed Fire Flames spread throughout the rigging rigging rig rig- ging on the old sailing salling ship There was a 0 panic and most aboard were drowned or burned to death Scores i of Immigrants aboard died and I their life savings savings amounting amounting to approximately ape ap i proximately sank sank with the charred ship in 70 feet of water I No one thought of the fortune until I 1855 when an enterprising group from Buffalo found the hull of the I ship towed it to shallow water and recovered the wealth which was mostly in foreign coins Not all of of or orthe the treasures have been recovered The bulk of the Dean Richmond still lies between Dunkirk N N. N Y V. and Erie Pa All hands were lost when the Richmond sank and 50 50 worth of pig zinc lies in her water-logged water hold The Young Sion sank during thelast thelast the thelast last century with a valuable cargo of railroad iron near Walnut creek OfT Off Point Pelee Ont lies the Kent with a money cargo and somewhere between Cleveland and Detroit the Clarion is sunk with a cargo of loco motives Finders of the steamer Atlantic which went down off Long Point In Lake Erie with a loss of lives were made richer by Much Whisky Lost Not a little of the valuable cargo on the rocky bottom of treacherous Lake Erie is whisky some lost in wrecks but much thrown overboard from smugglers' smugglers boats I During the days of prohibition the bootleggers many bootleggers many of them boys In their teens out for tor adventure and profit profit plied plied the lake with their bottled bot bat tied cargoes One of the most popular routes was by way of the Lake Erie Islands past past Put Bay Put y where Admiral Perry harbored his fleet before his famous encounter with the British In the shallows near the islands the rumrunners hastily dumped their liquor whenever the vigilant coast guard appeared Many cases of whisky still rest on the sandy bottoms Edward A A. A Nagel a young Toledo yachtsman last summer anchored his catboat off one of the Islands descended in an open-bottom open diving helmet and recovered many cases of liquor |