The Hindman scuttling

This is the resting place of the Linda Hindman. It is not a wreck per se, but rather was scuttled here in the 1970(a)s by a prominent local resident who wanted to create a breakwater in the hopes of preventing further erosion of the beach below Pioneer Park. The water levels of Lake Huron were very high in the 1970(a)s. Erosion below the Pioneer Park bluffs was a concern, especially for property owner Brigadier Dr. Morgan Smith who owned the Metcalfe property just south of the park. Apparently this gent was quite the multi-faceted achiever.

The Linda Hindman was built in Dunkirk, New York (no date found), and was initially a fire tug and served many years on the Great Lakes. It found it(a)s way into the Hindman family out of Owen Sound and was used for their lumbering business and worked out of Sault Ste. Marie and Whitefish Bay. When deemed obsolete, it was relocated to Goderich Harbour with several other outdated craft. Salvaging was begun, but then Ed Siddall bought it for his fishing business and salvaging stopped. On St. Patrick(a)s day and while moored in the harbour, nasty waves caused several ships to break loose and being small, this craft was squeezed in the mess. Without a deck or wheelhouse, this essentially meant the end of the boat as a viable active vessel.

Back to the brigadier: He purchased the ship in 1973 and had it towed from Goderich to just off Bayfield beach. It was then to have been dragged to shore via a bulldozer to be used as a breakwall, perpendicular to the beach and joining the other breakwater structures one can see below the bluffs. The stern was resting in 11 feet of water (lake levels at the time) but before it could be dragged to shore instead the brigadier had it scuttled and it remains where it was left. I(a)ve read that the whole boat is there, but due to extreme weather it is broken up and the stern now sits poking out of the water due to current low water levels. You can apparently see it quite easily below the surface thanks to zebra mussels and their proliferation in the lake (and accompanying filtering capabilities). There is a facebook page for Great Lakes shipwrecks which has some great waterline and below water shots of the remnants.

This history and then some can be found in the links provided. Note, there are some alternate spellings for the name of the vessel in some of the links.