More than 20 known shipwrecks lie on the lake bottom in the vicinity of Tobermory, all with their own story to tell. Art Amos & Dan Lindsay have put together the stories of 4 of these well-known wrecks in this presentation, “4 Gems of Tobermory”. The Forest City, built in 1870, Alice G launched in 1902, San Jacinto in 1856 and the Arabia built in 1853, are the focus of this presentation. Dan and Art have portrayed in this video the history of these ships, including interviews with key people that aided in their discoveries.
Art Amos has been diving since 1966. When he saw his first shipwreck, he realized the wealth of history on the Great Lakes bottomlands. Since that time, Art has been involved in numerous underwater archaeological projects. He participated in the research of the shipwrecks to be included in the Fathom Five Provincial Park, which embraced the 1972 survey of the Arabia and the 1973 survey of the Tobermory ferry dock. In 1975 Art worked on the Royal Ontario Museum sponsored excavation of an unidentified 18th-century shipwreck near the island of Anegada, BVI. Other projects include the Charleston Lake Portage Route survey, the Rudder Survey, the Nimrod survey, the Port Stanley Shipwreck survey and the Kennedy Lake, BC, Fish Weir survey.
In 1975, Art worked on the excavation of a historic naval slip in Penetang Harbor with a group that included avocational and professional archaeologists. The group then formed an association from that excavation that became known as the Ontario Marine Heritage Committee. The OMHC is still an active group involved in all aspects of historical and archaeological research.
Publications that Art has produced include the Diver’s Guide to Georgian Bay, co-authored with Patrick Folkes, Rudders, Great Lakes Sailing Vessels and “The Discovery of the Schooner St. James,” co-authored with Dan Lindsay. Art Amos and Dan Lindsay were awarded the “Henry N. Barkhausen Award” for “Original Research in Great Lakes Maritime History” for the archaeological report they authored on the “St. James” project. Along with these publications, Art has submitted many reports to the Ontario Provincial Cultural Ministries.
Dan Lindsay has been diving since 1972 and is an NAUI divemaster. Dan spent six years of his career in the commercial diving industry. He worked as Diver-EMT with Canadian-based companies in the Beaufort Sea, Davis Strait and the Great Lakes. Dan is now an Automation Designer, but his greater love is in deep-water wreck exploration, videography and photography.
As a member of the Ontario Marine Heritage Committee, he and his team members successfully identified the famous Mystery Schooner X in Lake Erie as the schooner St. James. Through his company Sea-View Imaging, he has created videos from several tropical locations, the Andrea Doria, Tobermory, Lake Erie’s Long Point, The Empress of Ireland, Gunilda, Hamilton & Scourge, the Avro Arrow project and many other shipwrecks in the Great Lakes.
Dan’s video production on the “Empress of Ireland” has been distributed throughout the world and in many schools and libraries in Canada. He has also produced other historical documentary videos on Tobermory and the Shipwrecks of Long Point.
Gary Coulter’s website has an excellent section that depicts several of the shipwrecks and their history around the Tobermory area.
