Vintage Double Hose

Got my first dive of 2020 in last night, a drift of the West Branch of the Upper Niagara River. The River separates Canada from the United States. Well, I seem to have come across quite the find. I believe I have come across a bootleg running craft from the Prohibition era. It is the remains of what appears to be a 40' +/- wood skiff (likely an inboard), and in the remains, there are probably between 500 and 1,000 beer bottles from a brewery in Ft. Wayne Indiana. I got these 5 bottles (all I could hold and run my float reel.

We frequently discuss out finds, but in all my time here, I have never heard anyone discuss any such find of this magnitude....

Later this week, we may try to find it again. It is a "hot drop" in a 3+ knot current, so it might be a bit of a challenge to locate again.
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Getting the camera ready for the next time.

My PRAM continues to be so enjoyable to use......
Thanks Bryan!

Very cool!

I found a full bottle of Moet Chandon White Star Champagne on a sunken freighter in Curacao in about 1980. There were more than nitrogen bubbles rising that night!

In a modest sized Adirondack Lake in Upstate New York, I was part of a group that came upon an unopened 100+ year old bottle of Hennessy sitting in the lake bottom silt....

Wow, that's exciting. Especially untouched and un-picked over by other divers. I hope you can find it again.

Have you lost any sleep over it? I wonder because a few years ago I found an outboard motor in our lake and couldn't sleep because I was worried someone would steal it before I got back to it. I had left a my float tied to it and couldn't get back until after work the next day. Like finding treasure or something even though it was worthless... The excitement was still there. I can't imagine how you must feel finding an actual boat. At 40' and open cockpit, it sounds like something that could handle some big water. I wonder if it was FAST....

Not nervous about someone else discovering it as it isn't marked, and the number of users is heavily down as the Canadian side has closed the launch ramps due to the COVID pandemic. Diving activities are really low... never are really high. A 3kt current is not something folks generally like.

The bootleggers boats were typically nothing fancy at all (risk of loss), and usually something on its last legs. They would slop some dark paint on the hull to disappear at night. It might have had a fast engine, or maybe not... Folks fantasize/romanticize it to be the way it is in the movies, but in reality, it was 180 degrees opposite.

It is a pretty decomposed wreck.

That's very cool. I can't wait to see some photos of what is left of the wreck.

Buddy's boat has mediocre electronics on it, so we struck out on locating it, but will be heading out with mine in the near future. Need to get past rookie weekend on the River. Now is not the time to be out there.

It might be a good thing to let sit for a while. I worked on a wreck many years ago,someone talked about it, and the next thing you know we had a bunch of people fishing on it and could not get back till winter. Fortunately not many people like diving in the NE Atlantic so no one tried wreck raiding it. The conditions and depth kept all but the Gorilla Divers from trying to find it.
I will add another word of caution, several states have enacted " Historical Finds" rules which control pulling items off said wrecks.

PS Congrats.

Add to that, it is in Canadian waters...

UPDATE: RCMP (not Canadian Border Patrol) has "advised" us (boarded buddy's boat last night) that there is to be no diving in Canada by foreigners.....

Seems we will have to wait for things to change in regard to the pandemic.