Type: Shipwreck (schooner)
Build: Wood
Location: St. Lawrence River
Nearest municipality: Brockville, Ontario
Depth: 45-80 feet (15-26 metres)
Visibility: 20-25 feet (6-8 metres)
Approximate length: 120 feet (40 metres)
Built: 1868
Sunk: 1877
Access: Shore (from Sparrow Island, accessible by boat)
Level: Advanced
Directions:
Closest boat launch to Sparrow Island is at Blockhouse Island . Head
West about 3 kilometres until you reach Sparrow Island. You can dock your
boat in the little bay just East, situated between Sparrow and Stovin
Islands. Frow there you can carry your gear to the site entry, about 300
feet away on the island's Northwest side.
Comments:
This is probably one of the easiest boats to find from the water's edge,
since the Lillie's anchor has been placed on the shore of and is chained to
the wreck below. It lies upside down on the island's cliff. Interesting
to explore in addition to the hull are the ship's keel, its master mast,
which lies near the bow, and the coal cargo splattered all around the wreck.
The cliff is made of total rock, which gives divers a break by removing the
possibility of stirring up silt.
The current is very strong in the West to East direction and can make
swimming difficult. Bringing down a dive light in order to peek at some
of fish hiding in the hull's cracks is a good idea. Although the opening
at the stern is large enough to allow a diver to pass through, this
shouldn't be attempted at any time since there's always a possibility
that the wreck can fall off the inclination into deeper water.
Jean Langlois is a Cornwall, Ontario native who now works in Ottawa
as a computer technologist. He has been diving for ten years, having
now reached the level of rescue diver. Although most of his diving has
been in his home region from Cornwall to Kingston, Jean also had the
pleasure of discovering other beautiful dive spots such as Tobermory,
the Maritimes and Les Escoumins in Quebec. He recently has combined
passion of diving and computers to create a new Web Site, Scuba Diving
in Eastern Ontario!
Jean can be reached at the following e-mail address
br624@freenet.carleton.ca
URL: http://members.tripod.com/~Kaos2/scuba.
