Enslaved: the Sunken History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade by Sean Kingsley & Simcha Jacobovici

Author:Sean Kingsley & Simcha Jacobovici
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2022-10-04T00:00:00+00:00

THE NIAGARA FALLS

On Lake Michigan, Alannah, Kramer, Kinga, Josh and Richard were closing in on their first dive in the Great Lakes. Saladin Allah had told the team that all kinds of ships often operated secretly here as “freedom boats.” Where were the freedom boats among the Great Lakes six thousand wrecks?

Local knowledge goes a long way. Saladin had introduced Diving With A Purpose to local historian John Polacsek, an expert on sunken ships in these waters. Now John was taking the team out to a very specific spot on Lake Michigan where a steamer called the Niagara sank.

The lake’s surface was flat. Perfect diving conditions. Only a squawking seagull broke the peace. Not another boat was in sight.

Wearing his SS William Clay Ford baseball cap in honor of one of the Great Lake’s uncountable bulk freighters, silver wire glasses above his moustache, John told the team to get ready to dive.

“We’re out here on the site, this is where the Niagara is, about fifty feet down below,” he began. “The Niagara was part of the Reed fleet, which is out of Erie, Pennsylvania. The Reed family were major abolitionists, and any time you wanted to forward a fugitive slave, you could contact one of the Reed boats. Once they got on the boat, the fugitives would blend in as crewmembers until they had the opportunity to get to Detroit, get on the ferry, go across the mile to Windsor, Canada, and then they would be free.”

The journey was not as easy or safe as it sounded. The final road to freedom involved taking the ship to Chicago on the southern tip of Lake Michigan, steaming all the way to the northern end, and then turning 180° east down the full stretch of Lake Huron. It was a distance of over 510 miles. Today Lake Michigan is idyllically peaceful. In the mid–nineteenth century it was the beating heart of industry, business, and communication. Eyes were everywhere.

THE NIAGARA

Sidewheel palace steamer, built 1845 by Bidwell & Banta of Buffalo, New York

Owner, Charles Manning Reed

68.5 meters long, 10.2 meters wide, depth of hold 4.2 meters, 1,084 tons

Capacity for seventy-five cabin passengers and 180 in steerage

Up to sixteen round trips from Buffalo to Chicago a year, passengers and general freight

September 24, 1856, lost to fire. Sixty of three hundred people died; steamer and cargo a total loss

Wreck 17 meters deep, east of Harrington Beach State Park, Ozaukee County

Keelson, vessel machinery, engine, walking beam, triple boilers, and paddlewheels well preserved

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