Lake Erie’s secret find

THE wreckage of a steamer that sank in Lake Erie more than a century ago and eluded shipwreck hunters for decades has finally been found off the Ohio shore.

The steam barge, called the Margaret Olwill, was loaded with limestone and bound for Cleveland when it went down in a storm in 1899, killing eight people including the captain, his wife and their son, 9.

Shipwreck hunter Rob Ruetschle, who first looked for the barge nearly 30 years ago, discovered its remains last summer. He and others later confirmed the identity of the wreckage.

Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes and littered with shipwrecks from an era when people and cargo often travelled by water. Its violent storms have taken down hundreds of vessels over the years.