KEY STATS:
Ship Type: Composite Barge
Lifespan: Built 1898, Sunk 1945
Length: 177 ft (54.5m)
Depths: 75- 100ft (23-30m)
Location: Off Simcoe Island, Kingston, Ontario
GPS N44 06 79 W76 34 78


The strongest impression when first seeing this wreck is its impressive size: I mean, it's a 177-foot barge that screams out DIVE ME. The George T. Davie started out in Levis, PQ's George T. Davie shipbuilding yards in 1898, and sailed the St Lawrence and Lake Ontario until its untimely demise on April 18, 1945. While being towed from Oswego, New York, to Kingston, Ontario, by the tug "Salvage Prince," she capsized and, as the story goes, the one crew member had to scurry up its keel to be rescued. She sat all alone on the bottom until discovered in 1983 by Rick Neilson and finally, in 2000, was moored for all to enjoy.

Coming down the line to about 15 ft (3m) off the bow, the first things you encounter are the boilers and winch. The best way, so far, to dive her is go to your left and around the bow, to the stern on the topside (75ft [23m]). Check out the holds on the way to the wheelhouse, where you can poke your head in and take a peek inside. Coming around the stern, you'll see the wheel and rudder. Now for the fun stuff, once you have hit the bottom side of the lake. The top half of the wheelhouse is just off the wreck. Then the crane comes in view, complete with shovel head. Between the crane and the wreck is a dory with the mast still inside. On the way back to the wreck, there's a coal shovel and rigging wire. Then you're back on the line. There's lots to see and play with - well worth a second dive. .