John Moore

Shotline Diving Wreck Profile

• Name: John Moore
• Type: Wooden Schooner
• Year Built:
• Builder:
• Dimensions: Length X ft (Y m); Beam; Depth of hold
• Registered Tonnage:
• Location: Lake Ontario, approximately 6 miles east of Eastern Gap, Toronto Harbour
• Coordinates: 43°37'N, 79°17'W

Wreck Location Map

Vessel Type

The John Moore was a wooden-hulled sailing schooner, part of the numerous short-haul cargo and general freight fleet serving Toronto, Scarborough, Pickering, and Hamilton in the 19th century.

Schooners of this class were commonly between 80 and 130 feet in length, often rigged as two- or three-masters, with shallow draft hulls allowing close coastal operation but vulnerable in open lake squalls or hull failure events.

Description

The John Moore is recorded as having foundered approximately six miles east of Toronto’s Eastern Gap, a key harbor entrance between the city and the Toronto Islands. The specific date of loss is unrecorded in the summary, but its location places it in a highly trafficked and heavily charted area.

• Incident most likely occurred during a storm, or from overloading or hull leak during transit
• No information on cargo, ownership, or salvage attempt recorded
• Given proximity to shore, wreckage may have been salvaged, or vessel refloated and broken up locally

Due to the lack of fatalities in the brief entry, it’s possible that the crew escaped or were rescued, and the sinking was either slow or occurred under relatively controlled circumstances.

History

The John Moore is recorded as having foundered approximately six miles east of Toronto’s Eastern Gap, a key harbor entrance between the city and the Toronto Islands. The specific date of loss is unrecorded in the summary, but its location places it in a highly trafficked and heavily charted area.

Significant Incidents

• Incident most likely occurred during a storm, or from overloading or hull leak during transit
• No information on cargo, ownership, or salvage attempt recorded
• Given proximity to shore, wreckage may have been salvaged, or vessel refloated and broken up locally

Final Disposition

• Vessel Status: Presumed total loss by foundering
• Wreck Location: 6 miles east of Eastern Gap, potentially between Ashbridges Bay and Pickering shoreline
• Salvage: Unknown; no record of recovery or raised hull
• Condition: Presumed broken or silt-covered, unconfirmed by divers or sonar

Current Condition & Accessibility

• No verified sonar or diver target in Toronto East Beach / Scarborough Bluffs sector has been publicly identified as the John Moore
• Region is heavily modified by infill, breakwall construction, and urban shoreline extension
• Possible remains buried beneath Ashbridges sedimentation drift, or lost offshore in recreational boating zone
• A candidate for magnetometer and sonar side-scan surveys between Eastern Gap and Frenchman’s Bay

Resources & Links

[shotline_reference_links slug=”john-moore” title=”References & Links”]

The John Moore may represent one of many undocumented nearshore schooner wrecks east of Toronto’s harbor mouth, a casualty of early coastal trade and storm conditions. Her story, like others along the northern Lake Ontario shoreline, awaits rediscovery—either through archival confirmation or underwater imaging.