Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Local and US Federal Agencies Looking At Wrecking Lake Ontario by Stephen Weir from the June issue of Diver Magazine Breaking News:  Four New York counties, a small upstate city and the State of New York itself, have asked the Province of Ontario, the Ontario Underwater Council, and the Save Ontario Shipwreck association to support a plan to create a shipwreck preserve and marine habitat in the Eastern end of Lake Ontario.  The Province is being urged by Ontario divers to consider adding its own preserve in the wreck rich area of the lake near Prince Edward County and Amherst Island. The American counties: Jefferson, Oswego, Cayuga and Wayne, the City of Oswego and the New York State government are proposing the creation of an underwater and wreck conservation zone for south eastern Lake Ontario. The project is designed to “preserve, protect, promote and create economies around such submerged resources”.  It takes in 1,746 square miles of water with depths rangin

The Benwood - NOAA photograph Happy Birthday to the wreck of the Benwood It was 73-years ago Thursday that the Merchant Marine freighter Benwood collided with another freighter, the Robert C. Tuttle and sank off the shores of Key Largo, Florida.  Stephen Weir photographing the wreck of the Benwood It was an accident caused in no small part by World War 2 -- rumours of German U-boats in the area that night required both ships to travel completely blacked out, even though they were just 3-miles off-shore in the reef filled waters of Key Largo’s Atlantic coast.  The 360 ft. long Benwood was filled to the gunnels with phosphate rock and was armed with a deck gun, depth charges and bombs. When her bow was crushed in the collision, she took on water and 30-minutes laters the captain and crew abandoned ship as the Benwood sank. She now lies close to shore between French Reef and Dixie Shoals on a bottom of low profile reef and sand in depths ranging from 25 to 45 feet.