Fashion (1846)

Shotline Diving Wreck Profile

• Name: Fashion
• Type: Schooner
• Year Built: 1846
• Builder: Bath, Ontario
• Dimensions: Length X ft (Y m); Beam; Depth of hold
• Registered Tonnage: 48 tons
• Location: Lusk’s Point, ~3 miles from Rochester, New York
• Coordinates: N/A
• Official Number: N/A
• Original Owners: McMaster of Bath, Ontario; Gibson, Newcastle, Ontario
• Number of Masts: 2

Wreck Location Map

Vessel Type

Fashion was a two-masted wooden schooner, specifically designed for the fore-and-aft rigging configuration common among smaller cargo carriers on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence system.

Description

• Hull Material: Wood
• Decks: 1
• Masts: 2
• Tonnage (old style): 48 tons

She was a relatively small schooner, likely used for coastal and cross-lake trade, especially suited to the lumber and flour transport industries.

History

• 1854: Owned by McMaster of Bath, Ontario; classified as a fore-and-aft lumber schooner.
• 1857: Then under ownership of Gibson, Newcastle, Ontario.
• April 1857: While en route from Newcastle, ONT, to Rochester, NY with a cargo of flour, Fashion capsized near Lusk’s Point on Lake Ontario. She drifted ashore and was subsequently wrecked. The cargo was largely salvaged by April 8, 1857.

Significant Incidents

• April 1857: Capsized while transporting flour, leading to a total loss of the vessel.

Final Disposition

Fashion capsized and wrecked onshore at Lusk’s Point near Rochester, NY in April 1857. The vessel was deemed a total loss, although the flour cargo was recovered.

Current Condition & Accessibility

No modern archaeological identification or dive documentation has been reported. The site is presumed either buried, eroded by shoreline changes, or salvaged beyond trace.

Resources & Links

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The Fashion of Bath, Ontario, represents a typical mid-19th-century Canadian-built schooner employed in regional commerce. Her loss reflects the vulnerability of small wooden vessels to the unpredictable spring weather patterns on Lake Ontario. While small in tonnage, her role in the cross-border grain and lumber trade underscores the economic ties between Ontario and upstate New York during that period.