Roy A Jodrey

Over the Labor Day weekend, 8 NEUE divers headed north to do a little diving and experience well preserved wooden shipwrecks as well as current-bathed, metal shipwrecks in Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence River. This is a little video from the technical divers that did two dives on the wreck of the Roy A Jodrey.

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The Jodrey was a Great Lakes Freighter,640′ in length and 72′ wide. The keel was laid on February 11 1965 and she was launched on September 9 of the same year. Like other freighters at that time, the Jodrey is divided into three major sections. The bow where the navigation, steering and propulstion were control from the forward pilothouse. The sterm housed the four diesel engines, generators, pumps, machine shop etc. and took it’s commands from the bow. The mid-body of the ship comprised the cargo hold and the un-loading tunnels, conveyors and elevators.

On November 20th 1974 the Jodrey was headed for the Great Lakes Steel plant in Deetriot MI with a cargo of iron ore pellets. As the ship approached Pullman Shoal on the St Lawrence River, the ship ground herself, 800 yards off the coast guard station on Wellesley Island. The Captain had tried to beach his vessel and with the assistance of the Coast Guard, all 29 members of the crew were safe.

Over the next few hours, the ship began to settle deeper in the water indicating that the pumps could not keep up with the inflow. In a little under five hours after striking the shoal, the Jodrey slipped from the shore and sank into the river.

The wall that she sits below today below drops off almost vertically from 5 feet to over 230. Decending onto the wreck, the first thing that comes to into view is the ships mast (135′), bow railing, and wheel house (150′). As you descend, you reach the main deck between 180 feet and 200 feet. The bow of the Jodrey sits on a 40 to 45 degree list on its starboard side.

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