Niagara Scow - Subchaser Sunbeam

Subchaser Sunbeam

A similar wreck, involving a wooden vessel, occurred in June 1923. The craft, previously a World War I submarine patrol boat called the Sunbeam, had been returned to its owner, a New Yorker, after the war ended. The owner sold the boat to a new owner, and the boat was taken west on the Erie Canal, to be docked at a port in Lake Erie. The crew made a navigation mistake and found themselves well into the Niagara river, though still several miles upstream from the falls. They retired for the night in a nearby hotel. During the night, the unmanned boat came loose from its moorings.

The current carried the craft to the vicinity of the scow, and it likewise became caught in the shoals. The owners sold the wreck to Red Hill for a nominal sum, but Hill decided that the salvage cost was too high, so the boat remained marooned and by the late 1930s had broken apart. Some of its metallic parts are still visible at times when a significant quantity of water is being diverted for hydropower production.

Although the source information is not completely definitive, this wreck appears to have been the USS Sunbeam III (SP-251), which was a subchaser during World War I, and was returned to its New York-based owner after the war concluded.