May 25, 2023

Cover Photo: Spencer Shoniker’s Boat The Brooke-Lauren

Two decades and thousands of search hours later the wrecks’ location still remained a mystery. Determined to find its final resting place, a group of four shipwreck hunters banded together in the mid-nineties and started spending a week together each summer camped out on Main Duck Island while searching the surrounding waters.
The team members were Tim Legate, Spencer Shoniker, Barbara Carson and the late Rick Neilson. Pooling their knowledge and resources they searched summer after summer, yet the grail still eluded them.

Then as the century turned, so did their luck!

Rick’s research uncovered a mariners notice and wreck report. Tim, searching through old records at the Marine Museum, found the commissioner’s inquiry into the sinking which included navigational details about the collision. With these two new clues, Tim was able to tri-angulate and narrowed a new set of coordinates to search.

The fabulous four headed out and in just a few hours hit the jackpot and the final resting place of the OLIVER MOWAT was discovered!
In order to protect and prevent the wreck from having its artifacts stripped, the group decided to keep the location secret. Since that time, only a small handful of divers have had the privilege to explore this amazing time capsule of history.