Lake Huron - Sanilac Underwater Preserve
Regina
Depth 60-83 ft/ Length 250ft/ steel proreller/ Launched 1907 in Dumbarton Scotland/ Lost November 9, 1913
Similar to Wexford, Regina was one of the large eight freighters to go missing with all hands during infamous Lake Huron storm of November 9, 1913. The other 7 were Wexford; 504' Charles Price (resting in 70 ft near Lexington, Michigan); 416' Argus (located in 220 ft off Michigan's Thumb); 416' Hydrus (not located); 550' James Carruthers (not located); 432' John McGean (located in 220 ft off Michigan's Thumb) and 504' Isaac Scott (in 180 ft off Alpena, Michigan).
Unlike Wexford that landed on the bottom upright, five others that have been found to date are all upside down, including the 250' Regina. The smaller size of Regina was by design - she was a "canaler", meaning she was constructed specifically to fit into the locks of the Welland Canal. Regina was found in 1987, by accident,when two local divers were looking for Mary Alice B and suddenly realized they stumbled upon a much larger vessel.
We heard the story of the finding while riding the boat to dive her - apparently, the divers that found her only had one tank of air left between the two of them. One went down and did not came back for a while. When he finally surfaced, he asked the others on the boat - "if you were to find only one wreck in all your life, what would it be?" "Regina" said the other diver. With that, the diver in the water raised his hands with a bottle of champaigne in each and said "We found it". Not only did they find a wreck, but there was also a lot of supplies (cans of food, bottles of alcohol, etc.) that were found all around the ship. We did not find any.
Highlights include: massive propeller and rudder; name still visible in two areas; anchor on the bow; masts on the sides and of course numerous penetration opportunities for those so trained
Hazards include: metal pieces sticking everywhere; occasionally poor viz (we were diving it when the viz near the bottom was probably about 5 ft).
Old Pictures from 2004
