Lake Huron. In fact, many of the records showed her as a passenger ship full of guest cabins, not a cargo ship used for hauling coal. According to maritime records, the Africa was built in Kingston, Ontario in 1873 for a cost of $37,000 in gold (a peculiar detail in its own right) and spent her first 12 years shuttling passengers between Montreal, Chicago, Toledo, and Owen Sound. She was even known to race other passenger ships on the Great Lakes. In1886, disaster struck when she inexplicably caught fire, likely from an explosion onboard. She was moored in Owen Sound at the time and burned down to the waterline.
In an extremely rare move, rather than scrapping the vessel as a burnt-out heap the Africa was rebuilt as a steam barge. Another 14 feet was added to her length and her interior cabins were removed to create more cargo space. She would spend the next nine years criss-crossing Lake Huron hauling lumber and coal.
Then, on 5th October 1895, she left port in Ashtabula, Ohio headed for Owen Sound with the schooner Severn in tow. Both ships were loaded with coal. On 7th October, both ships encountered a nasty storm off the Bruce Peninsula. The winds were so strong they shredded the sails on the Severn. As it became apparent both vessels were in distress, Larsen called for the Africa to release the Severn from her tow line. Now adrift in the storm and with dusk setting in, the crew of the Severn watched the Africa disappear on the horizon. Miraculously, help arrived at the Severn early the next morning. Her crew were cold, wet, and rattled, but alive. They’d hit a reef while adrift, which damaged the boat but didn’t sink it, and the sailors had started a fire inside the hold using coal from their cargo to keep hypothermia at bay. The Africa was never seen again.
“Capt. Larsen either thought that we were sinking, or his vessel was foundering,” the Severn’s captain, James Silversides, told a local newspaper days after the storm, according to Canadian Geographic. “I think it was the latter, because he is a grand fellow, and would never have deserted us if he thought we were in a bad way.”
A search for the Africa was immediately launched, and shortly thereafter the crew of the Severn found the Africa’s lifeboat, but it was empty.
The ‘Africa’ refitted as a cargo barge. Photo credit: Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, Bowling Green State University
“No one had ever been in her,” Silversides told the local newspaper. “I tell you that I have passed through some bad weather during my thirty-five years’ sailing, but that experience upon Lake Huron is as bad as any. Captain Larsen was a splendid fellow to sail with, and he did all he could in this case to prevent what happened.”
In the days that followed, two bodies were discovered by fisherman. Over the following months, debris from the Africa, including ominous items like life preservers and a trunk containing personal items, washed ashore. But nothing definitive was ever found that explained where, or how, the Africa went down.
The following summer, in 1896, three more bodies washed ashore, including that of Captain Larsen.
For the next 128 years, no other debris from the Africa turned up, and no new theories about her disappearance gained any momentum. Her loss was chocked up as another victim of the deceptively dangerous Great Lakes. But thanks to Melnick and Drebert, the location of the Africa is now known, which means the process of uncovering the gaps in her story can begin. In a strange twist of fate, Larsen Cove, where the filmmakers reside on the Bruce Peninsula, is named after Captain Larsen.
Now the duo, alongside the historian Folkes and the archaeologist Janusas, will seek to answer the remaining questions about the Africa. How did she sink? What happened to her crew?
Human remains are likely still onboard, perhaps in the engine room where they are beyond view, says Folkes, according to Canadian Geographic. To keep salvagers, divers, and other gawkers from disturbing what is likely a historic burial site, Melnick and Drebert are keeping the exact location a secret.
“It’s a human tragedy; those lives were lost,” Folkes told Canadian Geographic. “I always think of those poor sailors. They had pretty tough lives and ended up getting drowned in Lake Huron.”
“We’ve lived by the Great Lakes, a stone’s throw away
our whole lives, and there is so much about them we haven’t seen and don’t know. The potential for exploration with this craft just opens up a whole new universe for us,” Drebert told the Owen Sound Times.
The story of the Africa will feature in the pair’s upcoming documentary All Too Clear with the story between her discovery and the invasive mussels offering a clear glimpse into the depths of the Great Lakes.
This article was originally published on the
BoatBlurb.com website
https://www.boatblurb.com/ and is published here with our thanks.
THE REPORT | DEC 2023 | ISSUE 106 | 103
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