Heritage Sarnia-Lambton is looking at the dark and dangerous side of the community's nautical history.
The network's latest virtual Heritage Hour presentation, titled Rough Waters: Shipwrecks of Lambton’s Past, is set for May 11 at 7 p.m.
Oil Museum Curator-Supervisor Erin Dee-Richard said Lambton is bordered by two important bodies of water; the St. Clair River and Lake Huron.
“Our local industries are intrinsically tied to the shipping and transportation along these waters," said Dee-Richard. "This nautical history has its share of dark moments, which is something we want to explore in this talk.”
Dee-Richard said they're kind of playing off the idea that some people enjoy some morbid curiosity.
"A lot of people know about the history of Lake Huron and the St. Clair River and the transportation history," she said. "So that's why we thought it'd be interesting to take a different approach to some of this history."
Dee-Richard said the presentation will explore some Lambton's most infamous shipwrecks of the first half of the 20th century.
"It starts in 1900 with the Fontana and we're running up until the fire on the Hamonic in 1945," she said. "I think the most famous one is the sinking of the Fontana, which happened near the Blue Water Bridge, and it actually had a cascading effect causing other shipwrecks."
Dee-Richard said they'll also be looking at the sinking of the Manasoo on Georgian Bay.
"So that's not in our area but it does have a local connection," she said. "Some Oil Springs residents were on that shipwreck."
Representatives from museums across the county will take part, and professor Greg Stott of University College of the North in Manitoba will also participate to discuss nautical history related to the Arkona area.
Heritage Hour is free and registration is required. You can register for this virtual event online at lambtonmuseums.ca.
The presentation is part of an ongoing series of Heritage Hours presentations, dating back to 2020. All the previous recordings can be found by clicking this link.
-With files from Natalia Vega
