Page 61 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - February 2023 Edition
P. 61
Lake Ontario’s Bermuda Triangle 61
‘Strange things out there’:
Inside Lake Ontario’s
‘Bermuda Triangle’
Continued from Page 60
Gateway to oblivion
The tragic fate of Bavaria’s crew is one of
dozens of mysterious tales from the
eastern shores of Lake Ontario that are
documented in Hugh F. Cochrane’s 1980
book Gateway to Oblivion.
“The locals were aware of the strange
stories that came out of this area,” says
Picton-based storyteller and author Janet
Kellough.
But it was Cochrane who came up with
and the legends of this place. And now I given that the database is incomplete. If
the name: the Marysburgh Vortex. know why I was doing it. Because if Baillod’s estimates are correct, the true
somebody hadn’t done it, they were number may be closer to 500 wrecks.
The Vortex is generally thought to going to disappear.”
encompass the eastern part of Lake
This includes storied “disappearances”
Ontario, bounded by Prince Edward
How many ships has the Vortex like the Bavaria and the schooner Picton,
County on the west, Kingston to the east,
claimed? as well as hundreds of other water vessels
and Oswego, N.Y. to the south. large and small that foundered mostly
While public interest in Lake Ontario’s due to storms and onboard fires.
The mysterious region includes, and gets
maritime legends and lore may be fading,
its name from, the southern portion of In all, hundreds if not thousands of sailors
our knowledge of Great Lakes
Prince Edward County, historically and passengers lost their lives navigating
shipwrecks has never been more
known as Marysburgh Township. the treacherous waters of eastern Lake
complete.
Ontario.
“That name took on a life of its own,”
Discovering a wrecked ship may conjure
says Kellough. “It became a code for Thanks to an abundance of cold
up images of divers scouring the water
anything that didn’t quite go right in your freshwater, many of these wrecks lay
with advanced sonar. But the reality is,
life. Like: ‘I’m late for work, sorry, I got perfectly preserved on the lakebed. These
the majority of new wrecks are now
lost in the Vortex.’ Or, ‘I mailed you the
identified by internet sleuths poring over ghostlike memorials, and in some cases
cheque. I don’t know what happened. It tombs, draw diving enthusiasts from all
digitized newspaper archives and vessel
must have been stolen by the Vortex.’” over the world.
registries.
Kellough, a seventh-generation Prince There’s the Annie Falconer from 1904,
The David Swayze Great Lakes
Edward County native, has become
shipwreck file, with additions from which was found with the captain’s
somewhat of an unofficial chronicler of binoculars still on the deck. And there’s
maritime historian Brendon Baillod, lists
the legend. the Manola from 1918, which was found
the details and general whereabouts of
nearly 5,000 documented shipwrecks with a chipped axe by the door —
“I wouldn’t call myself an expert, but evidence the passengers tried to hack
across the Great Lakes, though Baillod
every time anybody wants to talk about
believes the true number may be as high their way out as the boat sank.
the Marysburgh Vortex they eventually
as 8,000.
end up coming to me,” she says.
(Continued on Page 62)
Analysis of this database reveals that
Kellough admits she hasn’t spoken about
nearly half of Lake Ontario’s shipwrecks
the Vortex in a long time. Interest in the
occurred in the eastern section commonly
story has waned in recent years, as the
associated with the Marysburgh Vortex, a
county has become increasingly
region that accounts for less than a
dominated by a tourism industry that
quarter of the lake’s surface area.
seems largely uninterested in local
history.
In total, the database lists 270 shipwrecks
within the Marysburgh Vortex, although
“I’ve spent my whole life collecting the
this is almost certainly an undercount,
history and the folklore and the stories
