Cornwall (paddle wheeler)
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[edit] Location
GPS?
N44 08.18 W76 37.15
In Ontario. Lake Ontario near Kingston
[edit] Conditions
Current:
Depth: 70 Visibility:
Water temperature: From 1C (Feb.) to 25C (July)
[edit] Description
Launched as the Kingston at Montreal in 1854, she was one of the finest Canadian steamboats of her day on the Upper St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario. Indeed, when the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) toured Canada in 1860, she was chosen to be his ‘floating palace’. In 1872, she was gutted by fire while off Grenadier Island in the St. Lawrence River. Rebuilt as the Bavarian, she again burned in the fall of 1873. The iron hull, rebuilt yet again, in Power’s shipyard at Kingston, was this time christened Algerian.
In 1905, she was renamed Cornwall. Near the end of 1911, she was purchased by the Calvin Company of Garden Island, opposite Kingston. She was converted to a well-equipped rescue vessel and used until around 1925.
In the early 1930’s, during a snowstorm, the stripped Cornwall was scuttled near Amherst Island close to the graveyard where she remained until being discovered by Rick Neilson in 1989. There is still much to see on this wreck. The boilers and some steam pipes are still present; wooden barrels are scattered about; the windlass is still attached to the bow section; and there is even a bed still there.
The Cornwall is always a great dive. There are still a lot of things to see at this site as well as being a moderately long wreck, coming in at 176 ft (54m). You decend on the wreck from the portside stern with the mooring block approximately 30’ away from the wreck. At the bottom of the block you will find a tag line to guide you to the wreck, although the visibility is usually good enough to see the wreck from the block.
The iron hull of this vessel has open up much like a book lying on a table. As you swim forward you sill encounter two large boilers and the rather special paddle wheels. The Cornwall originally came into service during the hay days of steam and paddles. During her last outfitting she was modernized with a very unique feature. The paddles on her wheels were geared and articulated so that at any point during the stoke the paddles were perpendicular to the water column. This design was extremely efficient and for a paddle wheeler really represented state of the art.
Unfortunately for this hard luck vessel time had started to creep up on her fairly early in her career with the advent of far more efficient propeller vessels. The capstain still remains of her foredeck as well as a number of portholes still remain in tact.
[edit] Access
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[edit] Hazards
Any hazards associated with diving this site go here
[edit] Recent Conditions
| Date | Temperature | Visibility |
|---|---|---|
| YYYY-MM-DD | XX° | XX' |
[edit] Links, References, and Other Sources
Citations and links to images, webpages, or other media go here.
