Friday 23 October 2009

Port Dover Museum / Atlantic Steamship Wreck

Red Hats outing this month was educational as well as a few laughs.
Off we went to the Port Dover Marine Museum. We watched a short film on the discovery of the wreck of one of the most luxurious steamships of the 1850 era , The Atlantic.
It was found just off of Long Point in one of the deepest parts of the lake, 200 feet down. The Atlantic was for it's time a most luxurious sidewheel passenger steamer 267 ft long only 3 years old , when it sank on 8/20/1852 after colliding with the propeller steamer Ogdensberg in a heavy fog 4 miles due East of the tip of Long Point. The ship was carrying far in excess of its usual number of passengers and anywhere from 150 to 250 drowned in this disaster, many on board were Norwegian immigrants coming from New York city via the Erie Canal, to Buffalo then on their way to start a new life in the west..a tidbit of Great Lake history I did not know was how the Great Lakes and ships were used for a period of about 20 years to help open up the west before rail took over.
Do check out the link for more of the story of this wreck.
Mike Fletcher a local diver found the wreck in the 80's and many of the savaged items he brought up from Atlantic are on display at the museum.
Dishes;Ironstone,

Child's leather shoes;
Crocks, note the center one is pristine! preserved by the cold Lake Erie water.

There are many other displays as well , one that spoke to me is the uniform from the war of 1812 , how small people were back then.

We then went to
Sweet Treats from Home a bake shop and tea room on the main street of Port Dover. This is a small shop with lots of treats. The 3 tables
were each set with unique tea sets and linens.
I chose a pumpkin scone to go with my tea.
Will be looking for a recipe for them , so good.
A great afternoon.

2 comments:

Rosanne said...

Sounds like an interesting outing! The china is lovely!

Jannett said...

You had a lovely day.... :)