Jack’s Shipwreck Project

Rows

Each row contains a distinct shipwreck.  For the purposes of my dataset, a shipwreck is a vessel that has experienced an incident that has placed it out of commission.  Because of the incident logged within, the vessel never sailed on its own again.  This can mean the ship was sunk, or damaged beyond ability to repair and return to service.  The wreck entries can take four forms: discovered wrecks, removed wrecks, undiscovered wrecks, and unidentified wrecks.  The first are wrecks on the bottom, paired with a ship name and history (think RMS Titanic).  The second are wrecks which occurred, but the wreck was later moved and disposed of (SS Noronic).  The third are ships which are known to have sunk, but for which a wreck has not yet been located (SS Baychimo).  The final one are hulks or wrecks discovered, which have not been positively identified (think random hulk).

Columns

The data headers can be subdivided into thematic sections of information.  The first section is Naming/ID data.  The categories for this section are Name of the vessel and the Registry number of the vessel (if it had one) preceded by a letter (A, B, C, etc) indicating the country the Registry number was granted by (A for US, C for Canada, etc).  These two columns are joined with an Alt Names column for unofficial nicknames or erroneous names along with a Former Names column for former official names of the vessels.  There is also a column for Former Registry in case the vessel was sold alien or renumbered at some point in its life.

The next subsection of information is Build information.  This includes the dates the vessel was Laid Down, Launched, and Completed.  For dates in the dataset, I played around with various formats.  My issue was that I did not have complete information on all the ships so creating single cell dates was difficult if I wanted that information to be easily sortable.  Therefore, these dates (along with all the others in the dataset) are broken out into three columns: Day, Month, Year.  Also in this subsection, is the Build Location (split into three columns of Municipality, State/Province, and Country like all locales) that the vessel was constructed at, along with the Builder, and the Hull Number (if available) of the vessel while it was under construction.

Next is specification information.  For unidentified wrecks this is the section which contains information that can be the most helpful in identifying wrecks.  The spec information can be futher divided into two groups.  The first is the vessel type specs, things like the Hull Material, Propulsion, Type of Vessel, Number of Masts, and Cargo Type.  Then after come size specs.  These are information on the size and weight of the vessel: Length, Beam, Draught, Gross Tonnage, Net        Tonnage, and Builders’ Old Measure Tonnage.  The measurements are in Imperial units: feet and Imperial tons.

Then comes the historical information on the ship.  First is the historical information on the vessel itself.  This includes Ownership history, the Nationality, and the vessel’s Homeport (as Municipality, State/Province, and Country).  After historical information on the vessel, is the historical information related to the sinking itself.  This is the information specific to the vessel’s last voyage: Cargo, Ships Being Towed (by the ship that sunk), Tow Ship (if the sunken ship was being towed), Where the Vessel Departed (as Municipality, State/Province, and Country), and Destination (as Municipality, State/Province, and Country).  Next is the Manner of Sinking and Cause of Sinking, which will be explained on their own below.  These are followed by the Loss Date (as three columns Day, Month, Year).  For fatalities I have Lives Lost, Total Complement, then Fatality Percentage.  The final historical information on the sinking is the Site of Loss, which is broken out into four columns: Site/Landmark, Municipality, State/Province, Country.  If the LAT/LON of the wreck is not know then the estimated LAT/LON of the Loss Location is included in two columns.        

With Cause of Sinking and Manner of Sinking, I think of this in the same sense that death certificates are filled out.  The cause is the immediate reason or factors that caused the ship to sink (storm, poor visibility, cargo shifted, etc.)  The manner is the general way in which the ship went down (Collision, Foundered, Stranded).  There is a column Other Ship for collisions and ships attacked in wartime.  One note on terminology: wrecked indicates that the ship was driven ashore, while stranded indicates that while traveling it struck an underwater obstruction or shoal.

After the information on the sinking, comes the information on the wreck.  First is the Status of Wreck, is the wreck resting where it sank or has it been moved or altered in any way.  If the ship was moved and the wreck locale is different from the sinking locale then information is imputed into four columns: Site/Landmark, Municipality, State/Province, Country.  If the wreck’s LAT/LON is known than it is imputed in two columns.  Then the dataset includes the Body of Water (Lake Ontario or the St. Lawrence River for these wrecks) and System of Water (Great Lakes for these wrecks).  Then depth information of the wreck is included as Min. Depth and Max. Depth in Imperial units of feet.  Then whether the wreck has been Discovered and if so then

the date (as three columns Day, Month, Year).

The final information columns include the Sources of my information (which I will go into more details about below).  All rows should have multiple sources.  Followed by any last Comments.

Apart from playing with the idea of adding three columns for the Monetary Cost of the vessel, Monetary Cost of the cargo, and the Monetary Cost of the from the wreck overall.  The thing keeping me from doing this is the amount of work it would entail as well as the poor information on the monetary cost of wrecks.

Research Questions

Primarily, I see this dataset as an informational tool to aid in the practice of Public History, along with helping shipwreck hunters to find and identify wrecks.  I will be looking for how the visualization of the data changes or challenges traditional narratives around shipwrecks on Lake Ontario.  Already, I have confirmed the anecdotal legend of the 1880s being one of the worst decades for wrecks as there are large spikes in wrecks for 1881, 1883, and 1886

Schedule

I am almost done as is.  I am a full days work away from completing the data cleaning for Lake Ontario, then to be followed by a double check of sourcing to make sure I am not missing any Lake Ontario wrecks.  I already have a wireframe ready to go.

Sources

Couch, Skip, and Don Martin. Divers Guide to the Upper St. Lawrence River: The Best Fresh Water Scuba Diving in the World. Canada: Henderson Printing Inc., 2012.

Couch, Skip, and Dennis McCarthy. Skip’s Divers Guide to Cape Vincent and Clayton. Clayton, New York: Blue Ledge Systems, Inc., 2009.

Couch, Skip, and Dennis McCarthy. Skip’s Divers Guide to the Narrows and Alex Bay. Clayton, New York: Blue Ledge Systems, Inc., 2009.

Kohl, Cris. The 100 Best Great Lakes Shipwrecks: Volume 1. Hong Kong: Seawolf Communications Inc., 1998.

Kohl, Cris. The 100 Best Great Lakes Shipwrecks: Volume 2. Hong Kong: Seawolf Communications Inc., 1998.

Kohl, Cris. The Great Lakes Diving Guide. Chicago, Ill: Seawolf Communications Inc., 2001.

Lewis, Walter. Maritime History of the Great Lakes. “Collection Search”. 2005. http://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/search

McCarthy, Dennis, Kathi McCarthy, and Skip Couch. Dive the Thousand Islands. Clayton, New York: Blue Ledge Systems, Inc., 2012.

Metzler, Gerald. “Great Lakes Vessel Database”. 2019. http://www.greatlakesvessels.org/en-us/intro.aspx

Save Ontario Shipwrecks. “Buoy Sites”. 2018. https://saveontarioshipwrecks.ca/buoy-program/buoy-site-list/

Shipwreck World. “Articles” and “Wreck Finder”. 2019. http://www.shipwreckworld.com/

Swayze, David. “The Great Lakes Shipwreck File: Total Losses of Great Lakes Ships 1679 – 1999”. 2001. http://www.boatnerd.com/swayze/shipwreck/

Wikipedia.org

Consulted Works

Barry, James P. Wrecks and Rescues of the Great Lakes. Thunder Bay: Thunder Bay Press, 1981.

Bowen, Dana Thomas. Shipwrecks of the Lakes: Told in Story and Picture. Thunder Bay: Thunder Bay Press, 1952.

Boyer, Dwight. Ghost Ships of the Great Lakes. Thunder Bay: Thunder Bay Press, 1968.

Boyer, Dwight. True Tales of the Great Lakes. Thunder Bay: Thunder Bay Press, 1971.

Brown, David G. White Hurricane: A Great Lakes November Gale and America’s Deadliest Maritime Disaster. New York: Barnes & Noble Publishing, 2002.

Greenwood, John O. Namesakes 1900-1909: An Era Begins. Vol. 10. 18 vols. Namesakes. New York: Freshwater Press, 1987.

Greenwood, John O. Namesakes 1910-1919: Steel Steamers Go To War. Vol. 11. 18 vols. Namesakes. New York: Freshwater Press, 1987.

Hancock, Paul. Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes. Thunder Bay: Thunder Bay Press, 2001.

Hemming, Robert J. Ships Gone Missing: The Great Lakes Storm of 1913. New York: Contemporary Books, 1995.

Hivert-Carthew, Annick. Ghostly Lights: Great Lakes Lighthouse Tales of Terror. New York: Wilderness Adventure Books, 1998.

Kuntz, Jerry. The Heroic Age of Diving: America’s Underwater Pioneers and the Great Lakes of Lake Erie. New York: SUNY Press, 2018.

Oleszewski, Wes. Ghost Ships, Gales, and Forgotten Tales. New York: Avery Color Studios, 1995.

Oleszewski, Wes.Mysteries and Histories: Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes. New York: Avery Color Studios, 1997.

Ratigan, William. Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals. Second. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1960.

Witten, Sally Sue. Lake Erie Ports and Boats: In Vintage Postcards. Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2001.

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