The City of Sheboygan shipwreck, near Kingston, Ont., can be as deep as 105 feet.Matt Charlesworth/Neptune & Salacia Diving
Under a cloudless sky, I sunk into Lake Ontario until the dark, green-blue murkiness enveloped me.
Whenever I told anyone about my weekend plans to go scuba diving in Kingston – “Canada, not Jamaica,” I would clarify – I was met with an incredulous “Why?”
Canada’s first capital city is known for its above-water attractions, historic downtown, sail-boating culture and cruises through the nearby Thousand Islands archipelago in the St. Lawrence River. But I was drawn in by wonders under the surface: the 200-or-so shipwrecks that are moored just offshore that recall an era when Kingston was once a hub for ship traffic.
I was set to explore an 1848-built steamer ship named Comet. It sank “not once, not twice but three times!” my diving instructor Guillaume Courcy, a wealth of information on Kingston’s 19th-centry shipwreck lore, told me on the way. Courcy started waterfront diving company Neptune & Salacia in 2022, after 25 years of service with the Canadian Armed Forces, with his wife, Martine Roux.
The best shipwrecks, he says, are the deeper ones. At the Comet, the dive can go to a maximum of 85 feet, while the City of Sheboygan can get to 105 feet. It is recommended to have an advanced diver certification for these dives, but less experienced adventure-seekers (like me) who have their open water certification can access these “underwater museums,” as Courcy calls them, with PADI-certified instructors.
The 200-or-so shipwrecks in the area recall an era when Kingston was once a hub for ship traffic.Matt Charlesworth/Neptune & Salacia Diving
It was my first time diving in a bigger lake, and he coached me through the cold-water scuba diving equipment before we headed out for my deepest dive yet.
The water’s temperature on this mid-September day was around 20 C at the surface, but can drop as low as 8 C in the deep water. It didn’t feel too cold to me, but Courcy says it can get closer to zero when he dives at the beginning of the season in May.
Clinging to a rope, I went down more than 60 feet, sinking into the darkness until my toes almost touched the ship’s deck – and was transported to another time, as fish swarmed around the wreck’s massive 32-foot paddle wheel.
At another site called George A. Marsh, where 12 people died, including children, Courcy says divers could see a baby carriage a few years ago, which has since disintegrated. This wreck, around 80 feet deep, is the most intact because visitors likely didn’t remove artifacts out of respect, he says.
Though it is illegal now, artifacts were once removed from shipwrecks in the area, and can now be seen at the Great Lakes Museum, which a group of local divers established in 1975. Courcy and other divers such as Matt Charlesworth are keeping up this tradition of spotlighting Kingston’s 19th-century maritime industrial history while trying to limit damage to the sites.
“Promoting marine heritage is what it’s all about,” said Charlesworth, who is on the board of charitable organization Save Ontario Shipwrecks, “But we also just love diving.”
If you go
May is the best time for visibility of the Kingston, Ont. wrecks.Matt Charlesworth/Neptune & Salacia Diving
Kingston is about a three-hour drive east of Toronto, or take Via Rail from Toronto, Ottawa or Montreal.
Diving: May is the best time for visibility of the Kingston, Ont. wrecks. Neptune and Salacia holds PADI certification courses, or tours for those who are already PADI-certified. It is suggested to have some technical diving experience with cold-water equipment. For details and pricing, visit neptunesalacia.com
Other ways to see shipwrecks: You can snorkel around three 1812 shallow wrecks – HMS Princess Charlotte is under eight feet of water – or you can take a glass bottom kayak around Garden Island’s 20 shallow wrecks.
Play passenger on a Titanic-style steamship: Kingston is home to one of the last three Edwardian era passenger steamships in the world: The S.S. Keewatin, which travelled from 1908 to 1965 through the upper Great Lakes region. After a $2-million renovation, in 2024 the Great Lakes Museum opened tours inside the ship.
“Unlike the Titanic, she never got hit by an iceberg, but she was an ice-breaker,” my guide Josh Bolton explained: The ship was always the first out in the lakes at the start of the season.
Adorned with much of its original furniture, as well as donated guests’ artifacts, picture and clothing, the S.S. Keewatin immerses visitors in the experience of its first-class guests.
The writer was a guest of Tourism Kingston. It did not review or approve the story before publication.