Maritime historian Douglas Hunter has documented an extraordinary find: the walking beam of the side-wheel steamer Waubuno, lost with all hands in Georgian Bay on November 21, 1879.

The Waubuno was a 135-foot freight and passenger paddle steamer, built in 1865 and lost in a fierce storm with 24 crew and passengers. What makes this discovery remarkable is that her engine was not new — it had been salvaged from the older steamer Mazeppa (ex-Farmer, built 1848, lost 1856).

The newly photographed cast-iron walking beam confirms this link and provides insight into how Great Lakes shipbuilders recycled valuable machinery between vessels in the mid-19th century.

Fragments of the Waubuno (including her rudder, now at Midland’s Huronia Museum, and an anchor recovered in 1959) have long been known. But Hunter’s find adds an essential piece of her technological story, connecting two generations of Canadian steamers.

This new evidence deepens our understanding of the Waubuno tragedy and preserves another tangible piece of Georgian Bay’s maritime past.

#Waubuno #Mazeppa #GreatLakesHistory #GeorgianBay #ShipwreckResearch #ShotlineDiving