Submitted by Sources of Knowledge
An enthusiastic Dan Welsh entertained 80 attendees at the Parks Canada Visitor Centre on the evening of Thursday November 28th. He provided a Power Point presentation augmented with original documents, framed diagrams, and numerous gestures regaling the history of his vessel, the Dawn Light.
The Dawn Light, formerly named the Leroy Brooks, Henry Stokes and Aburg, was built in 1891 at the Craig Shipbuilding yards in Toledo, Ohio. The vessel was first purchased by “Count” William Rehberg originally from Germany and this began a long and adventurous journey leading to its current ownership and mooring in Tobermory.
The Leroy Brooks was confiscated in 1894 by the Canadian Revenue Cutter, The Petrel, that was enforcing a fishing regulation between the U.S. and Canada and was temporarily held in Amherstburg, Ontario. The Petrel, as a result of this seizure, caused an international incident at this time as it was built in Owen Sound by order of the British Navy and had a gun mounted on its foredeck. Apparently, this violated an agreement between the British Empire and the United States (the Rush-Bagot Treaty of 1817 on naval disarmament).
The vessel visited the bottom of the Great Lakes’ waters three times.
The vessel visited the bottom of the Great Lakes’ waters three times. The first sinking occurred in the Detroit River in 1933 while towing another vessel. A retrofit was just completed in 1936 when it sank for the second time near Amherstburg. The third and final sinking occurred in 1980 near Penetanguishene under “mysterious circumstances” according to the local paper. The paper also noted that it took several attempts over 2 months to raise the vessel and this was finally accomplished by our own Rod Anderson.
The vessel was raised and retrofitted once again to serve as a live-aboard dive tour boat. The Dawn Light was subsequently purchased by Ray Davis around 1997 and it worked out of Tobermory as a dive tour boat. Dan was familiar with the vessel and purchased it from Ray in 2012. The Dawn Light is currently under retrofit to return to commercial service.
Dan was very keen when first approached to give this SoK Talk and it showed. After a number of questions, the presentation ended with a standing ovation…maybe the first ever at the Visitor Centre (?).
