History & Site Description of the John Audubon

Brief History & Site Description of the Brig John J.Audubon

History: The John J. Audubon (No Official No.) was built in 1854 by G&W Jones of Black River (Cleveland), Ohio for Merrick & Pierce of Clayton NY. It was a 370 ton two masted Brig. On a dark night October 20, 1854 while bound from Buffalo to Chicago with a load of railroad rails, she was struck nearly amidships by the schooner DEFIANCE. Although both vessels sank quickly within miles of each other, there was no loss of life. The collision occurred about halfway between Thunder Bay Island and Presque Isle, MI.

The Site: The John Audubon sits upright in 180 ft of water a few miles from the Rockport launch in an area that encompasses a half dozen beautiful shipwrecks. Although close to the shipping lanes the visibility thanks to the Zebra and Quaga mussels is tremendous and the surface water temperature was 60 degrees by the Fourth of July when we were there. The masts are down and lying on the deck. They are still intact so you can see the system used to join the sections. Although the yardarm is not attached to the mast you can see the mounting hardware. Although the history says it was almost cut in half we didn't notice a major split in the hull. The bow is split maybe from the sinking event and the stern with the skiff davits and rudder is totally intact. The wheel lays mostly intact on the deck near the stern and the centerboard winch sits in its original position on the centerline by the fallen mast. On our first trip to the area the Audubon was the only dive the weather let us do, but it was enough to entice us to return later the same year.