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Homer Warren

Water Depth: 193 Feet

Cause and Date of Loss: Storm, October 28, 1919 

Loss of Life:Eight souls, all hands 

Boat Specifications: 176' wooden hull, single screw propulsion 

In Use:1863-1919 

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History

The Homer Warren was the largest straight-deck wooden freighter still operating on the Great Lakes at the time of her sinking. She originally began her life as the Atlantic, a passenger and package freight steamer built in Ohio by Peck & Masters1. Her length was 176 feet with 448 gross tonnage. At the time, E.M. Peck, one of the builders, stated that the Atlantic was one of the finest boats they had ever sent out of their yard2. Two ships, the Arctic and Pacific, were built alongside the Atlantic. However, they both met the same fate as the Atlantic. The Arctic sank in Lake Huron, and the Pacific in Lake Erie, decades before the sinking of the Homer Warren (Atlantic)3.  
 
The Atlantic made routes throughout the Lakes, mainly carrying passengers until the 1890s. Up until then, it had not had any major incidents, apart from slight damage from storms. In 1893, the Atlantic was laid up in her owner’s dock in Detroit due to her inspection certificate expiring. It was reported that it would not run for the rest of the season or the 1894 season4. While sitting in the docks, the Atlantic went through severe damage from three fires. The fires occurred in 1894, 1898, and 1899. The fire in 1898 caused $3000 in damages and prevented the ship from being brought back into use to carry cargo5. The fire in 1899 burned the ship down to her skeleton. In 1900, the Atlantic was sold to real-estate dealer Homer Warren, her namesake. He and the others who bought her were having her fully repaired and renamed to be the Homer Warren. The ship was reported to be worth between $40,000 and $50,000 after the repairs were made, and she was widened by 2 feet, with a new engine, bulwarks, boilers, and a lumber capacity of 550,000 tons6.
 
In September 1900, the remodeling of the now Homer Warren was completed. It was reported that the remodeling was done very well by skilled craftsmen and was described as “a peach”7. The ship was given an A1 inspection rating. After being reunited with the waters of the Great Lakes, the Homer Warren completed regular shipments throughout the Lakes working as a bulk freighter8. Up until her sinking in 1919, the Homer Warren had a relatively uneventful life. There was only one reported major incident, which occurred in 1906 when she collided with the tug William Crosthwaite in Lake Erie. No lives were lost in that incident.  
 
In 1914, the Homer Warren became a Canadian vessel after it was purchased by the Peninsula Tug & Towing Co. In 1918, the Milne's Coal Co. bought the Homer Warren and was the final owner of the ship. She carried coal through Lake Ontario until her sinking a year later in 1919.
 

Sinking

On the morning of Tuesday, October 28, 1919, the Homer Warren set out on its regular shipping route from Oswego to Toronto, carrying 500 tons of coal10, captained by William Stocker. That day, a sixty-mile gale swept across the lake, creating the conditions that caused theHomer Warren to sink. A farmer living in Bear Creek noted a vessel flying a distress flag between 10 am and 11 am. By the time he had gone back to his house to search for binoculars and returned, the vessel had disappeared11. Locals at that time believed this to be the last sighting of theHomer Warren. The next day, debris was strewn across the beach at Sodus Point. There were no survivors from the sinking. Four bodies washed ashore; the rest were never recovered. News reports vary on the number of men onboard the Homer Warren; some report eight, while others report nine. 

The four bodies that were recovered from the beach were First Mate and the Captain's brother, George Stocker; Second Engineer, Joseph Kerr; Fireman George Kerr; and the cook, Patrick Howe. William Kerr, Chief Engineer of theHomer Warren and brother to Joseph and George Kerr, came from Toronto to identify the bodies, along with J.P. Milne, a member of the company that owned the Homer Warren12. 

The ship itself was valued at $20,000, and the insured cargo at $500013. 

Search

In 2004, local shipwreck enthusiasts Dan Scoville and Jim Kennard thought they had found the Homer Warren. A ship with a similar size and length had been found a few miles off Pultneyville, NY, similar to the description of theHomer Warren, a single screw steam engine freighter lost in the area near where theHomer Warren was reported to have been lost. 

However, some characteristics of the wreck did not match theHomer Warren. TheHomer Warren was owned by a coal company, and as such, she was reported to be carrying coal when she sank. The ship found by Scoville and Kennard had a cargo of corn. They also found that this ship had two boilers, while theHomer Warren only had one. Despite these discrepancies, the ship they found was still believed to be theHomer Warren. That is, until 2013 when amateur historian and independent researcher, Doron Israel, published his research disproving Scoville and Kennard’s discovery of the Homer Warren. Israel believed that they had instead found the shipwreck of thePerseverance, a vessel that was reported to have sunk from a fire in 1868, carrying a cargo of corn and which utilized two boilers.

Over 10 years later, in June 2025, a small crew from Exploring Our Deep World was out scanning the lake when an anomaly appeared - the unmistakable shape of a ship, with a strong shadow sitting almost 200 feet down on the lake’s bottom. The location of this wreck was only 6 miles west of the wreck of what is now believed to be the Perseverance.

The crew put a pin in the location and later returned in August with ROVs to see what the anomaly was. The first footage was obtained on August 7th with a Chasing Pro Max ROV.

At 190 feet down, the stern of a wooden ship emerged from the darkness. Closer inspection with the ROV revealed that it was a single-screw, long-deck, wooden freighter, a description to match theHomer Warren.
The state that this wreck was in was much more consistent with how theHomer Warren went down in a storm. The area where the pilot house would be on this wreck is broken down - this is consistent with reports of how the pilot house washed up on shore a few days after the storm occurred. The bow of the ship is badly broken and twisted, while much of the rest of the ship remains significantly intact.

The wreck of what is now believed to be thePerseverance is in much worse shape. All that remains intact of the ship is her skeleton. The perseverance was reported to have “burnt down to her waterline”15 and is consistent with what is left of her on the bottom.

Footage of what we believe to be the trueHomer Warren is available to watch below.

Footage