Powerful winds that triggered an Environment Canada warning this week stripped away sections of the Lake Erie shoreline that are normally concealed.
In doing so, they also — if only for a short time — revealed a shipwreck that is seldom visible.
Matt Vermette, owner of The Dive Shop in Kingsville, Ont., went out for a walk Wednesday evening — despite his wife thinking he was crazy for braving the strong winds and high waves — when something unusual caught his eye in the distance. It was a shipwreck.
He later estimated the wreck to be about 150 metres offshore and roughly 51 metres long, and said it appeared to be a schooner, recognizable by the prominent “skeleton” of its remains.
Which vessel the wreck belongs to remains uncertain. Historians Vermette consulted believe it may be one of two ships — the Demming or the Overton — both recorded in local newspapers of the era and dating back to before 1900.
One of the area’s shipwreck historians believes the wreck is that of the Demming.
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