THE ALEXANDRIA
I do not believe many people know about The Alexandria boat wreck that lays in Lake Ontario, at the foot of the Scarborough Bluffs. Not much is left from the boat, with most of it underwater and invisible from the shore. There is however a small part of the boiler that can still be seen when water levels permit.
Here is a great write up on the night The Alexandria sank.
From https://www.thescubanews.com/2020/01/20/alexandria-shipwreck-lies-at-the-foot-of-scarborough-bluffs/
"The Alexandria (a wooden side wheeler) was built in Montreal in 1866 and refit in 1883 and measured 174 feet long with a 31 foot beam. She was acquired in a merger that resulted in the formation of Canada Steamship Lines. Steel steamers were preferred over the older style of wooden boats and she became a spare, until the Alexandria returned to service in 1915 on the Montreal to Toronto cargo run.
Captain William Bloomfield was at the helm, and Alexandria left Port Hope on a Tuesday at 10:30 am on August 3, 1915 when she encountered a tempestuous storm just east of Toronto. Normally intended to carry 100 tons of cargo the ship was loaded with about 300 tons some of which included 2,000 bags of sugar, vinegar, cheese, canned goods & furniture. This made her ride higher in the water and difficult to control. The ship was seriously under powered, with only a single cylinder walking beam steam engine rated at 50 hp.
With waves breaking over the bow the Alexandria grounded on the sand underneath the Scarborough Bluffs, and the ship began to break up. By 8:00 pm the forward 50 feet of the bow broke off and the crew took to the life boats.
As the life boats became swamped by the high waves, Scarborough farmer Ed Middleton, a former sailor, swam out into the surf under a rapidly darkening sky, and brought a lifeline. Toronto’s Life saving crew, led by a Captain Chapman arrived on the scene quickly. Other rescuers included Reeve J.E. Cornell, C. Belvan, and E.W. Lefraugh who went down the steep bluffs to form a human chain and pulled Alexandria’s crew from the clutches of the crashing waves.
At 2 oclock that Wednesday morning, the last man to leave the ship, Capt. Bloomfield lept into the waves and caught the life line. Thanking Ed Middleton for his efforts upon finally reaching shore, Middleton replied ” I had a swim, I just took a line and swam out.” After the Captain reached shore, the entire stern broke off and collapsed.
The next morning, locals were busy removing anything of value from the wreck, not only the cargo but also timbers from the smashed hull that had been strewn along the shore."
LOGGING REQUIREMENTS:
Please visit both waypoints (The Alexandria Wreck and Passage) and post a photo for each waypoint with your found it log. Your photos MUST include your GPS, a thumbs up, a personal object, whatever will help identify you, as well as The Wreck in the background and the Passage sculpture. Logs with no photos attached will be deleted. EACH VISITOR needs to upload both required photos to their log. Thank you!
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Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.