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04 March 2012

Lake Erie Ship building Erie PA


I am in search of a ship that sank in Lake Erie.  This was to of occured some time between 1805-1806.  The Lake Erie Vessal The Good Intent could just be the one.

Taken from:

"LAKE NAVIGATION
The first sailing vessel on Lake Erie was the Griffon, 60 tons, built in 1679 on the Niagara River by Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, who sailed the vessel to Green Bay, Wisconsin. No record has been found of any other sailing vessel on the lake until about 1766, when the British launched four small ships used chiefly for carrying troops and army supplies.
In 1795 the only sailing vessel on the south shore of Lake Erie belonged to Capt. William Lee of Chippewa, N. Y. This ship made infrequent trips from Buffalo to Erie. Oars were auxiliary equipment. The first sailing vessel built on the south shore of Lake Erie was the 36-ton sloop Washington, constructed in 1798 at the mouth of * Four Mile Creek, east of Erie. The Good Intent, built by Capt. William Lee and R. S. Reed at the mouth of Mill Creek in 1799, was the first vessel launched at Erie.
Prior to the War of 1812 a dozen or more vessels, averaging 60 tons, composed the entire merchant fleet on Lake Erie. Salt was the chief article of freight, although some business was done in transporting furs from the far west to Buffalo.
The Walk-in-the-Water was the first steamboat to navigate Lake Erie. Of 300 tons, it was built on the Niagara River, launched in May, 1818, and made regular trips between Buffalo and Detroit, stopping at Erie on each trip. The first steamboat launched at Erie was the William Penn, 200 tons, in May, 1826. By 1826 three steamboats and from two to ten schooners cleared from Erie harbor every week.
The Vandalia, 150 tons, built at Oswego, New York, and brought through the Welland Canal in 1842, was the first boat on Lake Erie operated by a propeller. Other propeller vessels soon appeared, and this type replaced the old style side-wheel steamboats."

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