I am proud to announce that after 136 years after her disappearance, the wreck of the package/ passenger steamer Jane Miller has been discovered in Colpoys Bay 5 miles from Wiarton.
Back in October of 2016, Ken Merryman and myself were discussing plans to search in Canadian waters for the James Carruthers. I mentioned to him that the Canadian shore of Lake Huron is usually the windward side of the lake and that getting a few good days to search on a weekend would be a real lucky shot. Ken usually hunts wrecks up in Lake Superior. The wrecks are so deep that they offer them a sort of automatic protection as few divers venture into 400ft depths let alone the 5,6, and even 900ft depths that he has found wrecks. He was excited to learn that many undiscovered wrecks on the Canadian side of the lake should lie within decent diving ranges. We made up plans in case the lake was too rough to search Georgian Bay. Ken only had a limited time in the area as he was making his first circum-navigation of all 5 lakes and wanted to complete this task within 2 years. He asked me what missing wrecks lie within Georgian Bay and I gave him information on the Asia, JH Jones, Manasoo, and the Jane Miller. We only had 2 1/2 weeks to complete these surveys for the 5 wrecks we intended to look for. A week after our discussion, Ken filed for a permit with Ontario's archaeological department which was granted with no problem 4 months later.
As some of you may remember, this summer had a very unstable weather pattern which made the Carruthers search a no go. Traveling down Georgian Bay, Ken took some sonar recordings for the area that we planned to search for the Asia. Depths ranged from 140-290ft in the grid. He arrived at White Cloud Island and anchored there for the night. The next morning Ken and Jerry Eliason began the search for the Manasoo off of Griffith Island as I was scheduled to arrive around 11am at Wiarton. The depths off Griffith Island are wild as we swung from 240-490ft in a trench that runs NE across the bay from Owen Sound. The bottom contained may craters and rock shelves that made the side scan sonar ineffective as it was not a true sonar device. At 11 I arrived in the beautiful (yet busy) town of Wiarton. Ken was traveling down the bay towards the Marina and picked me up. It was decided that because the bottom terrain and extreme depths on the other side of Griffiths Island that we would focus our efforts on the Jane Miller.
I had studied the wreck of the Miller for the last 5 years as a passing interest in the fact that the Miller was so close to safety within the Bay itself that she should have made it even in hurricane type winds. It was a true mystery to me as how it happened.
The Jane Miller was built in Collingwood in the winter and spring of 1879. She was launched on June 22 and made her first voyage in July of that year. Her purpose was to make the run between Collingwood and Manitoulin Island ports carrying every type of good that was available at that time. There was concern over the stability of the vessel as she was narrow and tall. In moderate seas she would roll quite a bit which made passengers and crew quite uncomfortable. She only had one incident in her very short career when she ran aground during a summer thunderstorm in Micheal's Bay (I dont know where that is). She was pulled off with ease and returned to her runs. A year later in 1881, the Miller departed Little Current on northern Manitoulin Island to Spencers landing in the far eastern reaches of Colpoys Bay (5-6 miles from Wiarton) As she passed Tobermory, the wind and seas began to build. The Miller was carrying 28 (possibly 30 passengers) and a full load of general merchandise. It was supposed to be her last run of the season before she was to lay up in Owen Sound for the winter. As she made it into Colpoys Bay, the Miller was now within reach of safety as she was less than 600 yards away from Spencers dock when a powerful snow squall engulfed her. A family living on a lakefront home later told the media that the Miller was heard blowing whistles during the squall and that they saw all of her navigation lights disappear at once. Later the next day, the storm blew itself out and nothing was found. Immediately, wild speculation took newspapers by storm and everyone had an opinion. A massive search effort was launched to locate the wreck that was supposed to be only a half mile or so from Spencers Dock. For weeks, tugs and fishing boats dragged the bottom of Colpoys Bay and nothing was found. It was reported by the news that bubbles and discolored water was seen in front of Spencers Dock. Whether this report is true or not I cannot say. A week after the sinking, the searchers discovered a couple of barrels of flour and the gaff that attached to the top of the mast. In the spring of 1882, one more drag effort was conducted with no results. The Jane Miller and her 28 passengers and crew would remain ghosts for 136 years. Nothing was heard from the Miller until 32 years after her sinking when the Strom of 1913 brought up wreckage of the pilothouse and a cabin roof to White Cloud Island. Over the years books and magazine articles purported that the Miller lied in some forty fathom trench (that doesnt exist) or some deep crevice within the bay (also doesn't exist) where she would never be found. Well we proved them wrong
Jane Miller (Propeller), sunk, 23 Nov 1881
It was July 27th when we began our hunt for her. Ken believed she was far deeper into the bay than what people had speculated. I was skeptical as I was one who agreed with newspapers that she must be off Spencers Dock (whose location is lost), but I agreed with some of his arguments and the search was on itwas around 3:30 or 15:30? When Ken jumped up at the sonar and said theres a wreck! I saw the image and once again thought that i wasnt anything as I just saw a blob. Then we hit it with our down scan sonar and I was left in complete awe!
She was intact AND within easy diving range! I had left my scuba gear in my Jeep so we would have to go back and load my gear up. I did not expect to be able to dive this trip as the depths were too deep for air and I had left my 21/35 mix at home for next weeks dive on the Clifton. Because of the extreme depths in Lake Superior, Ken and Jerry had made a drop camera that could be used and had been used to depths of 950ft. We deployed the camera and saw the stack with its triple whistle about 300ft away from the site. As we drifteted into her, we saw that the large yawl davits still stood and the mast rose within 75ft of the surface, better yet still she was structurally intact. After the Miller find we went back out to the Manasoo search area where I saw the most bizarre bottom formations that I can only guess at what they were. With Ken and Jerry's homemade sonar, it was too hard to interpret the images. We would need a real side scan fish to complete this job in the future. It was late evening when we abandoned the search and went back into the bay where we anchored in front of Wiarton.
Me pulling up the fish
Back in October of 2016, Ken Merryman and myself were discussing plans to search in Canadian waters for the James Carruthers. I mentioned to him that the Canadian shore of Lake Huron is usually the windward side of the lake and that getting a few good days to search on a weekend would be a real lucky shot. Ken usually hunts wrecks up in Lake Superior. The wrecks are so deep that they offer them a sort of automatic protection as few divers venture into 400ft depths let alone the 5,6, and even 900ft depths that he has found wrecks. He was excited to learn that many undiscovered wrecks on the Canadian side of the lake should lie within decent diving ranges. We made up plans in case the lake was too rough to search Georgian Bay. Ken only had a limited time in the area as he was making his first circum-navigation of all 5 lakes and wanted to complete this task within 2 years. He asked me what missing wrecks lie within Georgian Bay and I gave him information on the Asia, JH Jones, Manasoo, and the Jane Miller. We only had 2 1/2 weeks to complete these surveys for the 5 wrecks we intended to look for. A week after our discussion, Ken filed for a permit with Ontario's archaeological department which was granted with no problem 4 months later.
As some of you may remember, this summer had a very unstable weather pattern which made the Carruthers search a no go. Traveling down Georgian Bay, Ken took some sonar recordings for the area that we planned to search for the Asia. Depths ranged from 140-290ft in the grid. He arrived at White Cloud Island and anchored there for the night. The next morning Ken and Jerry Eliason began the search for the Manasoo off of Griffith Island as I was scheduled to arrive around 11am at Wiarton. The depths off Griffith Island are wild as we swung from 240-490ft in a trench that runs NE across the bay from Owen Sound. The bottom contained may craters and rock shelves that made the side scan sonar ineffective as it was not a true sonar device. At 11 I arrived in the beautiful (yet busy) town of Wiarton. Ken was traveling down the bay towards the Marina and picked me up. It was decided that because the bottom terrain and extreme depths on the other side of Griffiths Island that we would focus our efforts on the Jane Miller.
I had studied the wreck of the Miller for the last 5 years as a passing interest in the fact that the Miller was so close to safety within the Bay itself that she should have made it even in hurricane type winds. It was a true mystery to me as how it happened.
The Jane Miller was built in Collingwood in the winter and spring of 1879. She was launched on June 22 and made her first voyage in July of that year. Her purpose was to make the run between Collingwood and Manitoulin Island ports carrying every type of good that was available at that time. There was concern over the stability of the vessel as she was narrow and tall. In moderate seas she would roll quite a bit which made passengers and crew quite uncomfortable. She only had one incident in her very short career when she ran aground during a summer thunderstorm in Micheal's Bay (I dont know where that is). She was pulled off with ease and returned to her runs. A year later in 1881, the Miller departed Little Current on northern Manitoulin Island to Spencers landing in the far eastern reaches of Colpoys Bay (5-6 miles from Wiarton) As she passed Tobermory, the wind and seas began to build. The Miller was carrying 28 (possibly 30 passengers) and a full load of general merchandise. It was supposed to be her last run of the season before she was to lay up in Owen Sound for the winter. As she made it into Colpoys Bay, the Miller was now within reach of safety as she was less than 600 yards away from Spencers dock when a powerful snow squall engulfed her. A family living on a lakefront home later told the media that the Miller was heard blowing whistles during the squall and that they saw all of her navigation lights disappear at once. Later the next day, the storm blew itself out and nothing was found. Immediately, wild speculation took newspapers by storm and everyone had an opinion. A massive search effort was launched to locate the wreck that was supposed to be only a half mile or so from Spencers Dock. For weeks, tugs and fishing boats dragged the bottom of Colpoys Bay and nothing was found. It was reported by the news that bubbles and discolored water was seen in front of Spencers Dock. Whether this report is true or not I cannot say. A week after the sinking, the searchers discovered a couple of barrels of flour and the gaff that attached to the top of the mast. In the spring of 1882, one more drag effort was conducted with no results. The Jane Miller and her 28 passengers and crew would remain ghosts for 136 years. Nothing was heard from the Miller until 32 years after her sinking when the Strom of 1913 brought up wreckage of the pilothouse and a cabin roof to White Cloud Island. Over the years books and magazine articles purported that the Miller lied in some forty fathom trench (that doesnt exist) or some deep crevice within the bay (also doesn't exist) where she would never be found. Well we proved them wrong
Jane Miller (Propeller), sunk, 23 Nov 1881
It was July 27th when we began our hunt for her. Ken believed she was far deeper into the bay than what people had speculated. I was skeptical as I was one who agreed with newspapers that she must be off Spencers Dock (whose location is lost), but I agreed with some of his arguments and the search was on itwas around 3:30 or 15:30? When Ken jumped up at the sonar and said theres a wreck! I saw the image and once again thought that i wasnt anything as I just saw a blob. Then we hit it with our down scan sonar and I was left in complete awe!
She was intact AND within easy diving range! I had left my scuba gear in my Jeep so we would have to go back and load my gear up. I did not expect to be able to dive this trip as the depths were too deep for air and I had left my 21/35 mix at home for next weeks dive on the Clifton. Because of the extreme depths in Lake Superior, Ken and Jerry had made a drop camera that could be used and had been used to depths of 950ft. We deployed the camera and saw the stack with its triple whistle about 300ft away from the site. As we drifteted into her, we saw that the large yawl davits still stood and the mast rose within 75ft of the surface, better yet still she was structurally intact. After the Miller find we went back out to the Manasoo search area where I saw the most bizarre bottom formations that I can only guess at what they were. With Ken and Jerry's homemade sonar, it was too hard to interpret the images. We would need a real side scan fish to complete this job in the future. It was late evening when we abandoned the search and went back into the bay where we anchored in front of Wiarton.
Me pulling up the fish
