Adventurers Dive Log: Scuba Diving Port Dover, Cracker Wreck

Diving the Cracker Wreck

Photographs and Story by Tom Wilson

FOUR FLAG DIVE

Build: Wood Schooner Barge/Scow
Location: Port Dover, Lake Erie
Depth: 190'
Length: 118'
Built: approximately 1860
Sunk: unknown
Level: Technical
Found: Sept. 1999

This wreck was only recently found, and has had very few divers on it (my buddy and I were numbers 6 and 7) so there is not much firm information as of yet. It picked up the name Cracker Wreck because the guys who found it were eating crackers at the time (hey, these names have to come from somewhere.)
Those far more knowledgeable than I on the dive estimate the wreck to have been built around 1860 due in part to the style and the absence of wire rigging.

One of the unique features of this wreck is the squared-off front, built that way, so I am told, because it was cheaper and required craftsmen that were not as skilled at the shipbuilding arts. Makes for and interesting bow though. The bowsprit is broken off partway out, but the bow is in great shape with the windlass and figurehead still in place.
Her mast is down, pointing almost perpendicular to the ship over the port rail. A sizeable aft cabin could be penetrated but there seems little point since it appears there is very little to see in the few feet above the silt accumulation.

While there are a few deadeyes, and the rail is in good shape, there are no readily apparent artifacts, and the quagga mussels have done a good job of obscuring many of the hull details. There is little damage to this wreck, certainly nothing suggesting the reason for her being 190' lower than her insurance adjusters wish she was.

The Cracker Wreck sits perfectly upright, and scored at least a 9 outta 10 on the what-condition-is-she-in scale
Although it is in similar condition there's not as much to see here as on the St. James or Tradewind, but still a very worthwhile place to spend some time. Like those other two wrecks the Cracker is a fair distance out from Port Dover, three hours via the excellent dive boat we were on. This is not a wreck that many people will know how to find. And for those old salts who have not been diving for a few years and still think Lake Erie visibility makes everything a braille dive, on the day we were there you could easily see the entire Cracker Wreck, all 118' feet of her


Photographs and Story by Tom Wilson

Port Dover Directory
Adventurers Dive Log