Maggie L. wreck site

Click on Image to link to 3d model

Maggie L.

Location:   Clayton  GPS:          44° 14.644'N, 76° 5.683'W
Depth:       75 Feet
Bottom:     Rock and Mud
Access:      Boat
Level:        Intermediate to Advanced



(click on image above to go to 3d image of the wreck)

The Maggie L. rests across the channel from Governors Islands just off the village of Clayton, N.Y.   Its bow was cut off during its collision with the steamer Keystate. It is in about 60 to 70 feet of water.  The hull is in reasonable shape with its decking and holds still visible. The top of the deck is pulled to the side of the hull. This either happened at the time of the collision or afterwards when it may have been hooked by a ship’s anchor.  The masts were cut off to about 3 feet above the deck. The ship’s rudder is still intact but the ship’s wheel was removed by scuba divers in the 1970s.

History:

Built in 1889, the wooden schooner the Maggie L. was one of the last commercial sailing vessels on the Great Lakes and Upper St. Lawrence River. She sunk when her bow was severed by a collision with the steel freighter Keystate on November 4th, 1929.  Captain M. H. Mellow, of Bath, Ontario was leaving the main shipping lane for the Clayton docks.  The Keystate, a 260-ton freighter was owned by the Keystone Lines of Canada and piloted by Captain E. J. Smith, of Kingston, Ontario.  There were no fatalities and the crew reached shore using the life boat which was being towed by the Maggie L. She sunk within minutes after being struck. The Maggie L. was wrecked only 45 years when it was found in the early 1970’s.  Sport scuba diving at the time, like the hard hat diving before it, was primarily involved in salvaging.  Before the arrival of the zebra mussel, underwater photography was almost impossible.  Like many wrecks from that time, many of its artifacts were salvaged.