3 wrecks off East LI
 

With information from Tim Lawton (thank you Tim) about a month ago I tried to locate 3 wrecks he dove about 25 years ago. Based on his map I found all 3 in 16-27 feet of water adjacent to/in Duck Trap Cove on the east side of Long island, just south of Harilla? Landing-the marina up that way. All of them are serious wooden vessels and very likely all built in the 1800's. Classic massive timber construction.

Tim told me he believes one of them is the Belle of the Waves, which burned at a wharf on Long Island about 1888. I have identified 4 wharves on LI, one on the west side, one on the south side, and two on the east side. This wharf-which I also found-is the northern-most wharf on the east side. But the wharf remains are underwater and not visible from the surface.

Clearly one of these vessels is toast-burned badly. Tim thought the other 2 wrecks were gundalows. At least one of these is very narrow and I hand measured the ribs at 4 feet on center and I counted 19 before the wreck came to an end. Looked like it was blown off. So that puts it at about 80 feet.

The 3rd wreck also showed fire damage and was also quite narrow and long, prob. 50 feet at least. Oddly enough there was no sign of any steam engine on any of them. If the other 2 are in fact gundalows they weren't steam powered anyway.

I can post Lat/Lon later. I need to go back and try and get clear shots on side scan. These wrecks due to their condition (water-logged, destroyed wood) were barely visible on side scan, even that shallow. I can put divers right on top of the first one in the center of the cove with Lat/Lon. The other two require a short swim-certainly not worth moving the boat. One of them requires in my opinion an approach using a wreck reel from your anchor because it is about 80 feet off the end of the pier where some sort of club has their facility. Anchoring off their pier is not impossible but may cause a bit of annoyance due to traffic. Swimming to it with a reel is best as far as I am concerned but that's not my call.

All 3 are within maybe 200 feet or less of each other.

Diving The Wrecks
 

Diver1111 was kind enough to take Capt Pat and I to dive these wrecks on 07/16/11. Here are my dive notes:

1st wreck - Depth: 18 feet.

2nd wreck - Depth: 29 feet. To find it, leave the middle of the 1st wreck at a compass heading of about 100 degrees. Swim about 200-250 feet with a wreck reel. You should pass to the right of a big rockpile which is just before the 2nd wreck.

3rd wreck - Depth: 16 feet. To find it, leave the middle of the first wreck at a compass heading of about 180 degrees and swim a short distance to the wreck.

The third wreck is the only one that has the structure of a boat. The other 2 look like barges. If this is, indeed, the Belle of the Waves, once again Diver1111 has uncovered more history of Lake Winnipesaukee.

Ya gotta love Side Scan Sonar!

Info on "Belle of the Waves"
 

Sounds like a fit...

http://www.lakewinnipesaukee.net/boa...ipesaukee.html

Repritned from "Three Centuries on Winnipesaukee" by Paul H. Blaisdell © 1936


The "Belle of the Wave" was one of the first of the Blackstone-built Winnipesaukee boats, having been constructed in 1881 by Herbert A. Blackstone for Ansel Lamprey. The hull was seventy-two feet long with a twelve-foot beam and was equipped with a Paine engine and an upright boiler. When completed the "Belle" went into service between Lakeport and Long Island, to connect with the "Mount Washington."

The last of the trio of well-known steamers to go during this era was the "Belle of the Wave," a victim of fire. This boat burned to the waters edge while tied up for the night at Long Island, in the year 1884.

Lat/Lon of 1st wreck
 

This one is more or less in the center of the cover and where divers should anchor to dive these.

Thank You Diver1111 for the info on these wrecks, I just got back from diving them. I spent 90 minutes exploring all three, I thought the 2nd was the most interesting though. I particularly thought the (propeller shaft?) threw hole in the 8 foot long beam was and the threw hull fitting was very interesting. We have a slip at Harilla landing and go by this spot all the time and never new there was a landing there, never mind the three wrecks. I also checked out the massive crib and timbers that were part of the landing. All in all it was a great start to a beautiful day.

3 wrecks
 

I'm glad you liked them. Very cool if you like wrecks of any kind. Some serious construction there.

The landing crib is massive! And the tube on that steamer (the one with the red sides, closest to the crib) was very interesting. Great dive site. Took my wife and son back there the other day just to say, "Would you ever think there are three sizable wrecks in this little cove?"

Side-scan shots of 2 of the 3 wrecks
 

Attached; Images not that great need to go back but still revealing.

3 wrecks off east LI
 

I dove this site for my first dive this year 3 weeks ago. My cousin has his boat docked there and the first wreck was maybe 30' off his bow! Great and easy dive! Thanks again diver 111!!!

3 wrecks marked
 

I dove this site last Friday with some friends from PA. Found all 3 rather easily. I also marked all 3 with a 6-8" green noodle on a green line about 6' underwater.

Here are some sonar shots of the wreck that is the most intact of the three in Duck Trap Cove-about 80 feet out from the pier. If you are looking from the water at the pier and shore it is straight out about 100 feet from the right side of the pier not the left/southern end.

I tried to get in to scan the others but as I could not tow the sonar as usual due to super shallow water I used a bow mount (hung from the bow); However due to changing depths, big piles of rocks and other terrain issues causing issues they are not worth posting. Will try again later to get the others.

This one wreck has clear ribbing in the sonar image that as I previously posted are 4 feet on center. I always thought it was 80 feet long +- and it seems that is the case if you count the ribs or look at the measurement I took using the measurement tool in the sonar software.

The center piece of the vessel frame-the keel rib if that's what you want to call it-as I recall is huge; hand cut and very long-quite a piece of wood working. If any divers go to this wreck please get some good photos of this keel piece-it's a gem worth seeing.

Please note that if your computer monitor is not high resolution any sonar images I post may not be as clear as I see on mine, which is at 1900.

My thanks again to Tim Lawton for giving me this information; He found them in the 1980's.

Mohawk
 

The steamer hull in shallow water in Duck Trap Cove is the remains of the Mohawk, which burned in the boathouse in 1906. My brother and I dove on the wreck in the late 60's and recovered a number of items including brass gauges, oil lamps, flag staff, and an anchor. The yacht was owned by Dr. F. E. Greene, and the items were returned to the family of Dr. Greene, who owned Windermere Estate and most of the end of Long Island.
RattlesnakeGal posted a picture of the Mohawk here: http://s965.photobucket.com/user/Rat...l?t=1303941181
When we dove on the wreck the remains of the small boathouse in the left corner of the picture were still there, although flat on the ground. This was not the Greene's boathouse.

Thanks for posting this, which I stumbled on by chance. We own what we believe was the last of the Greene family holdings on LI, just west of light 64 on the NE side of LI, purchased from the Greene family descendants in 1992. It's nice to hear about things related to the history of the property.

I dove this wreck again to film it.

Someone put a foam floaty-thing on the end of a line from the wreck which you can see clearly down about 10 feet under water.

I wish with these videos I could get clearer images but anyone filming anything is subject to water conditions. I used my magenta filter to try and deal with the lime green effect of losing the red light as you descend.

This wreck has an impressive piece of timber where a keel would be that is in the center of the structure (appears clearly on the sonar image) , which to me is a large barge. I measured it again today and came back with it at about 80 feet long, as before.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rR1bShIly8g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

http://youtu.be/rR1bShIly8g

Video removed??
 

Dive,

The video says removed my user if clicked as does the link.


ToW

I removed it today because while uploading to YouTube the site offered to "clean up" or "improve" the video quality which I had it do; I looked at it later and it made a real mess of the video.

I deleted it and uploaded the original again w/o the changes YouTube made, which is here:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m5P_-I0cKxs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

http://youtu.be/m5P_-I0cKxs

Not The Mohawk
 

That's not the Mohawk which is closer to shore in about 20 feet. We never extended our search out to the depth that you found the barge in.