The St. Lawrence Seaway Project – Overview

The St. Lawrence Seaway Project brings together the wreck and dive-site work being done along the full length of the Seaway, from the head of the river at Kingston and Lake Ontario down past Brockville, the Thousand Islands, Cornwall, Massena and beyond. Rather than being led by a single coordinator, this is a living, collaborative framework that connects the regional efforts already underway on both sides of the border and makes it easier for divers, historians and researchers to see the Seaway as one continuous story.

Cold, clear freshwater, strong currents, shoals, commercial traffic and wartime activity have left the Seaway with one of the densest concentrations of wrecks in North America. From wooden sailing vessels and canal steamers to modern freighters and tugs, the river and associated channels hold sites that range from shallow training dives to advanced technical dives in heavy current and low visibility.

Scope and Regional Sub-Projects

The St. Lawrence Seaway Project acts as the umbrella layer over several more focused regional projects and archives, including:

• Kingston Project – Approaches to the river, Wolfe Island graveyard wrecks, local harbour sites and lakeward approaches.
• Picton Project – The eastern Lake Ontario and Bay of Quinte side that feeds traffic into the river system.
• Canadian Seaway Corridor – Brockville, Brockville Narrows, Prescott, Cornwall and associated Canadian shore sites.
• U.S. Seaway Project – Alexandria Bay, Clayton, Cape Vincent, Ogdensburg, Massena and other U.S. river communities.

As new moorings, surveys, 3D models and historical research are completed, they can be linked into this Seaway-wide view, giving divers and researchers a single starting point for planning trips, comparing conditions and following the shipping story from lake to ocean.

Mission and Working Approach

Because no single group “owns” the Seaway, this project is intentionally open, modular and contributor-friendly. The goals are to:

• ✅ Catalogue and map wrecks, dive sites and maritime features across the full Seaway corridor.
• ✅ Cross-link regional archives so that a diver starting in Kingston, Brockville, Alexandria Bay or Cornwall sees how their local sites fit into the larger picture.
• ✅ Promote responsible access by highlighting no-touch ethics, mooring programs and safe diving practices in current-affected or high-traffic areas.
• ✅ Support research and education by connecting site pages to primary sources, 3D models, historical collections and museum partners on both sides of the river.

The Seaway Project is designed to grow over time as clubs, shops, historians, survey teams and individual divers contribute logs, coordinates, photos, models and archival findings.