Photos from James Fischer presentation on the Ghost Ships of Lake Ontario, the War of 1812, given on Jan. 13, 2007. The event was sponsored by the Marine History Group.
The Marine History Group of the Charlotte Genesee Lighthouse had a very successful presentation by James H. Fischer, a Marine Consultant and teacher on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2007. Jim has spent the past 22 years trying to resurrect some history that is buried at the bottom of Lake Ontario. The program was called “Ghost Ships of Lake Ontario” where Mr. Fischer presented all of his unique 80 slide collection on the history of Lake Ontario. Several photos are shown above. The slides were taken on dives to explore the ships Hamilton and Scourge which both sank during the storm on Lake Ontario in the War of 1812. “There’s so much history of the War of 1812 that’s here and kids don’t know about it,” said Fischer. “I love to tell this story.” The presentation was before a standing room only crowd of 87 people. Everyone left with a sense of wanted to see the ships brought up form the 300 feet below water. This is something that several people have been planning for over ten years now. If you want to learn more click on the link:
Hamilton & Scourge or Ship Wreck World.by Tom Brewer ( August 2006 )
Of all the cargos shipped from docks on the Genesee River coal is the king. For almost 100 years, from the 1870’s until 1970, coal from Pennsylvania was loaded onto ships and barges to be transported to ports on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. In some years over a million tons of coal was shipped in a year, from late March to early December.
The first coal dock was located where the ferry terminal is now. The firm of Bell, Lewis & Yates built a wood trestle in the early 1870’s at this location where the coal was dumped from railroad cars into pockets under the trestle where wheelbarrows would be filled, pushed by men over planks and dumped into the holds of sailing ships.
In 1874 the firm of Roberts, Smith and Sawyer built a trestle on the west bank of the river about two miles up the river where Turning Point Park is now. This dock had the advantage that the coal went from pockets on the trestle down chutes directly into the ship.
About 1876 Bell, Lewis & Yates built a new dock also on the west side of the river about a mile north of the Roberts Coal Dock, the north side of the present turning basin. This dock was much larger then their old dock and the Roberts Dock and could dump coal directly into the ships. This became to be known as the Yates Dock.
Both the Roberts and Yates docks were served by sidings off the Charlotte branch of the New York Central (NYC). In 1880’s the Roberts coal dock burned and was not rebuilt.
In 1889 the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway (BR&P) built a line to Charlotte and purchased the property where the Roberts Dock had been. They shipped coal over the Yates Dock using the NYC tracks to reach the dock.
A new approach was taken to coal shipping by the BR&P. The BR&P built a ferry slip on the old Roberts Dock property and the Grand Truck Railway in Canada built a slip at Cobourg, Ontario. In November of 1907, the Ontario No. 1 sailed from Charlotte with 28 cars of coal. In 1915 the Ontario No. 2 was added.
By 1909 the BR&P was in need of a new coal dock. The old Yates Dock was having trouble loading the new larger steam ships and in addition the BR&P was paying a high price for the use of the NYC tracks to reach the Yates Dock. In 1911, the BR&P put into operation the most substantial coal dock on Lake Ontario. It was built near the ferry slip and was constructed almost entirely of steel.
The BR&P suffered heavily from the depression and in 1932 was absorbed by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O). World War II brought increase tonnage to the coal dock and ferries. Canada needed coal for its part of the war effort. After the war the demand for coal decreased as customers switched to oil, gas or Lake Erie Coal. In 1950 the car ferry service was discontinued.
In 1970 the tonnage of coal dropped to the point that the B&O could not justify the operation of the coal dock any longer. In November 1970 the last ship carrying coal left Charlotte. The following year the trestle was dismantled. All that is left are the concrete foundations in Turning Point Park. Some of the railroad right of way for the coal dock is now part of the Genesee River Trail.
"M.V. Day Peckinpaugh "
by Tom Brewer (April 2006)
At the November 2005 meeting of Marine History, we shared pictures and stories about the M.V. Day Peckinpaugh which had passed through Rochester on the Erie Canal in October on her way from Erie, PA to Waterford , N.Y. There she will be restored and made into a museum to teach school children and the public about the history of the Erie Canal . Several members of Marine History went to see the Day Peckinpaugh when she was in the Rochester area. Many in the group remember the ship coming into the Port of Rochester. From about 1962 to 1984 she brought bulk cement from the Lake Ontario Cement Co. in Picton , Ontario to the Rochester Portland Cement Company on Boxart Street. She only came here occasionally when the regular ships the Glenelg and later the Metis were busy elsewhere. The Day Peckinpaugh was built in 1921 at Duluth , MN for service on the then new NY Barge Canal and the Great Lakes . At 254 ft. long, she was one of the largest to operate on the Barge Canal. She was originally called the ILI 101 and later named the Richard J. Barnes. In World War II she carried coal along the east coast. In 1958 the Erie Navigation Company purchased her and converted her to a self-unloading cement carrier to take cement from Picton, Ontario across Lake Ontario to Oswego where she entered the Barge Canal. She went on the Barge Canal to a terminal at Rome, NY. and would occasionally come to Rochester. Erie Navigation changed her name to Day Peckinpaugh- after the man who was involved in Great Lakes shipping and brother of Roger Peckinpaugh, one-time interim manager of the New York Yankees. In 1983 the Stephen B. Roman became the principle cement ship for Lake Ontario Cement. She would meet the Peckinpaugh at Oswego and transfer part of her cargo. From 1983 on we rarely saw the Peckinpaugh in Rochester . She was retired in 1994 and laid up at Erie , PA until 2005 when she was purchased by the NY State Museum with assistance from the Canal Society of New York.