The Niagara Scow is the unofficial name of the wreck

Shipwreck

A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....

 of a small scow

Scow

A scow, in the original sense, is a flat-bottomed boat with a blunt bow, often used to haul bulk freight; cf. barge. The etymology of the word is from the Dutch schouwe, meaning such a boat.-Sailing scows:...

 that brought two men perilously close to plunging over the Horseshoe Falls, the largest of the Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls

The Niagara Falls, located on the Niagara River draining Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, is the collective name for the Horseshoe Falls and the adjacent American Falls along with the comparatively small Bridal Veil Falls, which combined form the highest flow rate of any waterfalls in the world and has...

. The wreck can still be seen, upstream of the falls.

1918 incident

On August 6 1918, Gustave Luffberg and Frank Harris were aboard the scow dredging up sand banks from the Niagara River

Niagara River

The Niagara River flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. It forms part of the border between the Province of Ontario in Canada and New York State in the United States. There are differing theories as to the origin of the name of the river...

 upstream of the waterfall. When tugboat

Tugboat

A tugboat is a boat that maneuvers vessels by pushing or towing them. Tugs move vessels that either should not move themselves, such as ships in a crowded harbor or a narrow canal,or those that cannot move by themselves, such as barges, disabled ships, or oil platforms. Tugboats are powerful for...

 captain John Wallace brought the Hassayampa over to bring the scow back to shore however, it broke loose and began floating downriver rapidly towards the falls.

There are conflicting reports whether Luffberg and Harris were able to release the false bottom

False bottom

A false bottom is an internal partition in a container, typically at the bottom of a drawer, suitcase or similar item, enabling the concealment of objects from a cursory examination of the item's contents...

 of the scow to dump their load of sand and silt - but regardless, the boat got caught on a rock shoal

Shoal

Shoal, shoals or shoaling may mean:* Shoal, a sandbank or reef creating shallow water, especially where it forms a hazard to shipping* Shoal draught , of a boat with shallow draught which can pass over some shoals: see Draft...

 838 yards (766.3 m) from the edge of the falls, leaving the two Niagara Falls Power Company employees stranded in the middle of the raging torrents of water. Later reports suggest that Luffberg had tied a rope between himself and the scow as a safety precaution lest he fall overboard while the scow was still beached, while Harris tied one between himself and a free barrel.

Since a rescue boat was out of the question, the Niagara Falls (Ontario) Fire Department tried using a grappling gun

Grappling hook

A grappling hook is an anchor with multiple hooks , attached to a rope; it is thrown, dropped, sunk, projected, or fastened directly by hand to where at least one hook may catch and hold. Generally, grappling hooks are used to temporarily secure one end of a rope. They may also be used to dredge...

 to shoot a life line

Life Line

A life line is a Neuro-Linguistic Programming concept.Life Line may also refer to:* "Life Line" , episode from the sixth season of Star Trek: Voyager* "Life-Line", Heinlein's first published science fiction story....

 out towards the barge, from atop the roof of the Toronto Power House while awaiting the arrival of the US Coast Guard

United States Coast Guard

The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...

 from Youngstown, New York

Youngstown, New York

Youngstown is a village in Niagara County, New York, USA. The population was 1,957 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area....

 to bring a heavier grappling gun. When the US Coast Guard did arrive, they managed to send a lifeline over to the barge, and both marooned men made it safely back to shore via breeches buoy

Breeches buoy

A breeches buoy is a crude rope-based rescue device used to extract people from wrecked vessels, or to transfer people from one location to another in situations of danger. The device resembles a round emergency personal flotation device with a leg harness attached...

, 17 hours after they first found themselves drifting towards the falls. The hero of the day was noted riverman William "Red" Hill Sr., who tirelessly ventured out to free the tangled breeches buoy line several times throughout the night, and eventually assisted the men to safety. Hill was awarded the Carnegie Medal

Carnegie Hero Fund

The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, also known as Carnegie Hero Fund, was established to recognize persons who perform extraordinary acts of heroism in civilian life in the United States and Canada, and to provide financial assistance for those disabled and the dependents of those killed saving or...

 for his efforts. Hill and his sons would be involved in many other river rescues and recoveries in the next several decades.

At present the scow still remains in place, highly visible, caught on the shoal just out of reach of the Niagara Falls. There is now a plaque across from it on the Canadian side, explaining the history of the wreck.

Subchaser Sunbeam

A similar wreck, involving a wooden vessel, occurred in June of 1923. The craft, previously a World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 submarine patrol boat called the Sunbeam, had been returned to its owner, a New Yorker, after the war ended. The owner sold the boat to a new owner, and the boat was taken west on the Erie Canal

Erie Canal

The Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs about from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of...

, to be docked at a port in Lake Erie

Lake Erie

Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...

. The crew made a navigation mistake and found themselves well into the Niagara river, though still several miles upstream from the falls. They retired for the night in a nearby hotel. During the night, the unmanned boat came loose from its moorings.

The current carried the craft to the vicinity of the scow, and it likewise became caught in the shoals. The owners sold the wreck to Red Hill for a nominal sum, but Hill decided that the salvage cost was too high, so the boat remained marooned and by the late 1930s had broken apart. Some of its metallic parts are still visible at times when a significant quantity of water is being diverted for hydropower production.
http://www.niagarafrontier.com/scow.htmlhttp://www.nflibrary.ca/nfplindex/data/8/1/89481-501429.jpg

Although the source information is not completely definitive, this wreck appears to have been the USS Sunbeam III (SP-251)

USS Sunbeam III (SP-251)

USS Sunbeam III was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1919. The prefix designator means Section Patrol Craft....

, which was a subchaser during World War I, and was returned to its New York-based owner after the war concluded.

External links

• Digital Images Niagara Falls (Ont.) Public Library