The story
Built in 1873 by David F. Edwards at Toledo, Ohio, St. Peter was a 135.7-foot, three-masted schooner with a 26-foot beam, registered at 290 gross tons. She spent 25 years hauling bulk cargoes — primarily coal — across the Great Lakes.
On October 27, 1898, while transporting 607 tons of coal from Oswego to Toledo, St. Peter was caught in a violent westerly gale off Sodus, New York. The schooner was struck by two successive waves, listing heavily to port, righting briefly, then foundering suddenly. Five of the six crew members perished. Captain John Griffin alone survived by clinging to a topmast until rescued by the tug William A. Proctor.
The site was actively salvaged in 1899 by the South Shore Wrecking Company, which reduced the standing masts. Divers rediscovered the wreck in 1971, and it has since become the sanctuary's most popular recreational dive site. In 2002, St. Peter was listed on the National Register of Historic Places — the only wreck in the sanctuary with that distinction at the time of designation.
