Lake Erie Shipwrecks: The Tragedy of the Admiral & Cleveco
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2024
- Discover the doomed voyage of the tug Admiral and its consort tanker-barge Cleveco. The ships, their payload, and crew could not survive a Lake Erie blizzard.
The speaker is scuba diver, shipwreck historian, and all-around polymath Kevin Magee.
great vid,I'm a sucker for a Great Lakes ship drama while snug and dry.
Thank you! You all make great videos! I've been on a kick for the past week going through your catalog. You do a service to the world by posting these
I had a 1959 Crestliner 16ft aluminum boat off Kelly's Island. 20hp outboard motor. 1st night out it got dark real quick and a storm came on fast. I was stuck traveling away from the island looking for a break in the storm so I could turn and head back to the island. See I was told that in a storm it's best to head nose into the wave. Afraid the boat would tip over I kept heading into the wave as slowly as I could, but it was taking me away from the island. The wave would pick up the front of the aluminum boat and it would smack down back onto the water with a sound comparable to a shotgun blast. I made it back to the island by my own wit, I couldn't see it, just had to guess. With a newfound respect for the lake.
Bet these stories give you the creeps. When I was a teenager my dad and I were in a similar situation battling into the wind to get home. I know what you went through. These are called lakes but they're really freshwater oceans. Scary.
What they told you kept you alive. Sideways on to any significant seas and you are in danger of being rolled or flooded. Any number of vessels have been lost this way - not just small ones.
Safe sailing
When I was a teenager I was in a small boat in a storm with my father. We made it home because we had an awesome Aussie aluminium tinny and great 50hp Evinrude outboard, yeah and a bilge pump. These stories give me ptsd, God bless those in Davey Jones locker. I just realised these are freshwater, less buoyancy than seawater.
Interesting story thanks
beautiful film and beautiful industries ❤
Thank you
These men had truly horrific deaths, the instant sinking of the tugboat gave no possibility of survival, and the onset of problems that befell the barge made it impossible for the Crew to save themselves.
The loss of these two vessels and deaths of their Crewmen would have devastated the communities in which the families lived.
No working person should be expected to face such horrific deaths as part of their jobs, this occurred in relatively modern times.
After 38 years at sea and long retired, some of those years on tugs and trawlers on salt water,
some years in the arctic, two things stand out to me:
The conversion had to have been a factor that compromised Admirals stability. The modifications were obviously not well thought out.
And:
If indeed the portlights were all or even mostly open in those conditions, thats just bad seamanship. Even a tug that size (not really small for the times) is capable of standing much worse weather. A company I worked for sent similar tugs and tows to Vietnam on Navy contracts. Not quick or easy trips but they made the trips and returned.
Good story, well done.
It was an ancient steam tug, added 8 tonnes high up, a death trap. A little bit different from a near modern tug. Thanks for the story though.
R2rrr5r😮rwr😅
😢😅r
Keep in mind the Admiral was carrying several tons of ice frozen to the vessel that alone would compromise stability, center of gravity, and freeboard.
My great grandfather William Rocks was on the Admiral. My g'grandmother didn't know she lost her him until the newspaper called her and asked if that was her husband. He was an engineer.
Wow... what a horrifying way to learn that you lost a loved one! If you don't mind me asking, what did she say to them?
@@MentorPublicLib as far as i remember, my great aunt said she dropped the phone. Probably all hell broke loose. It was in 1942 so I wasn't around yet and it wasn't talked about very much. She never remarried.
@@carolesingleton-chase6519 I realize I'm nearly a century too late, but my heart goes out to her. All of us are touched by sadness in our lives, but fewer of us are faced with true tragedy.
@@MentorPublicLib Thank you, what a kind thing to say!
Carol, my grandfather was on the Admiral, too.
Thank you so much for your well researched video. I'm hooked on shipwreck videos. You are top notch.
listened to the whole thing- thanks for sharing this! My photo was in the PD when they were going out about the leak in the early 80's when i contacted the author. told him the Corps of Engineers should bill it to Steinbrenner as his family had owned the Cleveco. Also I was able to write to one of the 2 FEMALE Civil Air Patrol pilots, one had passed away but the other one moved to Puerto Rico in her retirement. Her relatives wrote me that she'd rec'd my letter but was very elderly and she didn't get to write back before she passed.
one more thing! my dad knew one of the guys, he went my the nickname (the Irish ALL had nicknames) of 'Angel' Chambers. he was of the Chambers Funeral Home on Rocky River Dr.
Strange to have a barge with a boiler and the crew to run it but not a propulsion engine. I have been on a vessel where with power applied, in this case to push on, the stern deck was swamped very easily just by way of the power applied.
It's kind of disgusting that divers kept this secret for a long time, stole the bell, and buried bodies that they found in the mud without any permission whatsoever. They acted like they owned it which is insanely arrogant and would be illegal today.
I'm a diver and not opposed to wreck diving. However, when human remains are present i feel the tomb shouldn't be violated. They could have evacuated the remains or simply welded the doors closed. It's disturbing the doors were left open as described. Just my opinion..
Who needs Nazis when Great Lake storms will sink ships?😞
That's a particularly ignorant and offensive thing to say, poor vessel modifications and bad weather have absolutely nothing to do with a very specific, deliberate, genocidal policy of the mass murder of innocent men, women, many of whom were pregnant, and children and babies, in Extermination Camps and Concentration Camps, in addition to countless massacres in towns and villages.