“The year was 1976, and Canadian pop-music star Gordon Lightfoot had recently released his song ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,’” Dan Orr began. “We listened to the song again and again as we drove north through the night from Ohio toward Tobermory, Ontario, site of Fathom Five National Marine Park. It only increased our anticipation—after all, we were heading to Tobermory to dive the Arabia and the other wrecks around Fathom Five.” (For those unfamiliar with the tune, Lightfoot’s song recounts the 1975 sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a freighter carrying iron ore, in Lake Superior; the lives of twenty-nine crewmen were lost.)
Fathom Five National Marine Park comprises forty-five square miles of Lake Huron (the middle lake of the Great Lakes) off the tip of the Bruce Peninsula, which juts out into the lake to help create Georgian Bay to the east. The strata of the region is considered the northern reach of the Niagara Escarpment, a series of dolomite rock formations that stretch from its southern terminus at Niagara Falls. Geologists estimate that the Niagara Escarpment dates back 400 million years, to a time when the Great Lakes were a shallow, tropical sea. Around Tobermory and adjoining Bruce Peninsula National Park, the Niagara Escarpment is marked by rugged cliffs on its eastern edge along Georgian Bay and sandy shallows along its western flank, Lake Huron.
The waters off Tobermory are regarded as the epicenter of Canadian (and perhaps Great Lakes) wreck diving, a treasure trove for those interested in maritime history and archaeology. Beginning in the 1850s, there was a significant increase in shipping traffic in the region; schooners headed north to deliver supplies to budding lumber towns along Georgian Bay, and returned to points south hauling lumber to help build out the Midwest. (By the 1890s, schooners were increasingly displaced by steamships.) During the frequent storms that are visited upon Lake Huron, ships in the vicinity of Tobermory would seek refuge in the two sheltered harbors—Big Tub and Little Tub—near the town. Many did not make it. Today, Big Tub and Little Tub harbors are home to five wrecks, and Fathom Five boasts twenty-two. “Tobermory is named for a town on the Isle of Mull in Scotland,” Dan continued, “and it’s not unlike being in Scotland—that is, it’s cool, often misty, and the people are exceedingly friendly. Put another way—it’s the kind of place where you’d expect to see a nineteenth-century shipwreck!”
Tobermory and Fathom Five have wrecks for divers of all levels. “There are many ways to experience the wrecks,” Dan explained. “Many are very close to shore, and people can dive from the shoreline. There are some tugs in Little Tug Harbor that rest in just fifteen to twenty feet of water. One fascinating ship in Big Tub Harbor is the Sweepstakes, a schooner built in 1867. It was stranded outside the harbor at Cove Island, and sunk as salvagers tried to drift it back into the harbor. Though it’s been on the bottom since 1885, the hull is virtually intact, thanks in part to assistance from the local diving community. It’s in such shallow water that you can stand on the railing and have your head on the surface. This and the tugs are a great introduction to wreck diving.”
The wreck that has most imprinted itself upon Dan Orr’s memory is the Arabia, a 131-foot barque (a sailing ship with fore and aft sails on the stern mast and square sails on the other masts) built in 1853 that came to rest in 1884 in 105 feet of water off Tobermory near Echo Island. (Oddly enough, the Arabia almost came to rest near Tobermory in 1883 around Flowerpot Island, where she ran aground. She was refloated, repaired, and returned to service for one more year.) “After my first trip there in 1976, the Arabia became a focal point of the underwater archaeology section of an advanced diving course I’d developed at Wright State University in the late seventies,” Dan said. “As part of the course, we created a simulation of the Arabia at the bottom of a local quarry, visited nautical museums, then dove progressively deeper wrecks, building toward the trip to Tobermory.”
Discovered in 1971, the Arabia holds great appeal for wreck enthusiasts, as it’s a rare example of a nearly intact nineteenth-century wooden sailing ship, in a place where waters are clear enough to take it in in all its wonder. The ship rests upright. Much of the hull is intact, as is the ship’s impressive bow, with several anchors in place, as if ready to drop. The ship’s wheel is preserved, attached to some decking that rests off the starboard side of the stern quarter. Great Lakes dive enthusiasts also point to another less obvious benefit to the Arabia—it’s yet to be infested with zebra mussels. It’s not a dive for beginners; the water is cold and currents can be strong. (An irony pointed out by writer Glenn Garnett is that while no crewmen perished when the Arabia went down, more than a dozen divers have died while investigating its secrets.) But most agree it’s a dive that’s worth the time it takes to gain the know-how necessary to experience it.
“This is one of those unique diving experiences that fills a special place in your heart that’s shared with the other few treasured experiences of your life!” Dan enthused. “I was so taken with the Arabia and Tobermory that I asked my wife to marry me there (above water). On the hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Arabia, I led a dive team from Wright State to Tobermory to commemorate the event,” Dan added. “We made one dive to place an inscribed granite memorial stone next to the wreck site, which reads ‘Celebrate the history and the experience.’”
DAN ORR has been involved in virtually all aspects of the diving industry for more than forty years. In 2005, he was named president/CEO of Divers Alert Network (DAN) after having been executive vice president and chief operating officer for more than ten years. In 1991, Orr was named DAN director of training responsible for developing and implementing DAN training programs, including the internationally successful DAN Oxygen First Aid Course. Prior to coming to DAN, Orr was the associate diving safety officer at Florida State University and director of diver training programs at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Orr has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in biology and has authored and contributed to many books and magazine articles, including as co-author of Scuba Diving Safety (2007) and DAN’s Pocket Guide for Diving Safety series. Orr has been a featured speaker at Our World-Underwater, Underwater Canada, Boston Sea Rovers, International Conference on Underwater Education, SeaSpace, Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS), as well as many others. He has also been the recipient of many awards for diving safety, including the Leonard Greenstone Award for Diving Safety, the NOGI from the Academy of Underwater Arts & Sciences in Sports/Education, the Our World-Underwater Award, Beneath the Sea’s Diver of the Year in Education, and Associate Boston Sea Rover. Orr currently serves on the boards of directors of organizations such as Diving Equipment and Marketing Association (secretary), Historical Diving Society (chairman), and International Divers Alert Network (chairman).
Getting There: Tobermory is roughly 190 miles from Toronto and 270 miles from Detroit, both of which are served by most major carriers.
Best Time to Visit: The diving season around Tobermory runs from May to October.
Accommodations: The Tobermory Chamber of Commerce Website (www.tobermory.org) lists lodgings options for the region.
Dive Shops/Guides: There are several dive shops that lead trips around Tobermory, including Diver’s Den (519-596-2363; www.diversden.ca) and G+S Watersports (519-596-2200; www.gswatersports.com).
No visit to Palau is complete without a visit to Jellyfish Lake, where non-stinging jellies have evolved.
