Filmmakers in Bruce Peninsula accidentally discover 128-year-old shipwreck
Yvonne Drebert and Zach Melnick were looking for invasive mussels when they found something nobody has laid eyes on for 128 years.
“Sort of out of the mists of time this ship appears,” said Zach Melnick, who was operating the remote controlled underwater camera that found the shipwreck.
This summer, the Bruce Peninsula filmmakers accidentally discovered what’s believed to be the wreck of the “Africa,” a steamship that sank in October of 1895 while carrying coal from the United States to Owen Sound across Lake Huron.
Drebert and Melnick could hardly believe their eyes as the 128-year-old ship revealed itself to them.
“Holy cow, there’s the smokestack. It looks like that’s a boiler. So, this is a steamship, so that’s super cool,” said Melnick.
Eleven people perished on the Africa when it sank. Among them, Captain Hans Larsen who, ironically enough, is the namesake of the village Drebert and Melnick call home.
“We live on the Bruce Peninsula in a place called Larsen’s Cove. This place was named after the captain of the Africa, Hans Larsen. There’s streets named for folks involved in this incident where we live. It’s kind of cool for the whole community to now know this is what actually happened to the Africa,” said Drebert.
Yvonne Drebert and Zach Melnick of Inspired Planet Productions in June 2023, the discoverers of the Africa shipwreck. (Courtesy of Inspired Planet Productions)
The accidental shipwreck discovery, which was made off the west coast of the Bruce Peninsula near Tobermory, has meant a lot of free publicity for the couple’s documentary ‘All Too Clear’ about invasive mussels in the Great Lakes.
They’ve been travelling around the Great Lakes shooting footage for the past two and half years.
“This shipwreck discovery really allows us to reach a much greater audience than we would have been able to before,” said Melnick.
You can learn and see more about their discovery and the invasive mussels’ documentary by visiting their website.
The “Africa” shipwreck covered in invasive quagga mussels. (Courtesy of Inspired Planet Productions)
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6978861.1722008569!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
At least 4 buildings burned at Jasper Park Lodge, others damaged: Fairmont memo
The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge said Thursday afternoon most of its structures are 'standing and intact,' including its iconic main lodge.
Major Canadian bank experiences direct deposit outage on payday
Scotiabank says it has fixed a technical issue that impacted direct deposits on Friday morning.
'He was just gone': Police ramp up search for vulnerable 3-year-old boy in Mississauga, Ont.
Police in Mississauga are conducting a full-scale search of the city’s biggest park for a non-verbal toddler who went missing Thursday evening. Sgt. Jennifer Trimble told reporters Friday morning that there has been no trace of three-year-old Zaid Abdullah since 6:20 p.m., when he was last seen with his parents in Erindale Park, near Dundas Street West and Mississauga Road.
Sask. appeal court says anti-trans group cannot join constitutional dispute over pronoun law
Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeal has denied a political group that opposes so-called “gender ideology” intervener status in a legal dispute over the province’s controversial pronoun law.
B.C.'s top doctor ends four-year COVID-19 public health emergency
After four years of mask mandates, gathering restrictions, vaccinations and hospitalizations, British Columbia’s provincial health officer has ended the province's public-health emergency for COVID-19.
Driver charged after flashing high beams at approaching police
Orillia OPP arrested and charged a driver with impaired driving after flashing their high beams.
Canada's Christine Sinclair: 'We were never shown drone footage'
Canada soccer great Christine Sinclair said on Friday national team players were never shown drone footage during the more than two decades she was on the team, following a spying scandal that cast a shadow over the Canadians at the Paris Games.
Powerful cartel leader 'El Mayo' Zambada was lured onto airplane before arrest in U.S., AP source says
A powerful Mexican drug cartel leader who eluded authorities for decades was duped into flying into the U.S., where he was arrested alongside a son of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, according to a U.S. law enforcement official familiar with the matter.
Elon Musk's estranged daughter calls out his 'entirely fake' claims about her childhood
Vivian Jenna Wilson, Elon Musk's estranged daughter, publicly refuted several recent anti-trans statements her Tesla CEO and X owner father has made about her.