Onondaga
Paddle-Wheel Steamer · United States · Lost Publicly scuttled with explosives in September 1898. · The Finger Lakes
A Civil War-era Finger Lakes steamer, publicly dynamited in 1898 and found on sonar over a century later, 400 feet down in Seneca Lake.
Become Captain of Record
The Vessel and Her Loss
Built in 1860 as the towboat Perez H. Fields, the vessel was rebuilt in 1870 by Bruce Springstead for the Seneca Lake Navigation Company and renamed Onondaga. She carried Union troops toward Elmira during the Civil War and later ran passengers and freight the length of Seneca Lake. Retired in 1895, she was destroyed as a public spectacle in September 1898 with a large explosive charge, watched by an estimated 5,000 people. Shipwreck researchers Jim Kennard and Roger Pawlowski located her wreckage off Kashong Point in 2012.
Vessel
- 1860
- Bruce Springstead (1870 rebuild)
- Not established
- Wood
- 175 ft
- 27 ft
- Not established
- Steam, walking-beam engine, paddlewheel
- Seneca Lake Navigation Company
Loss
- Publicly scuttled with explosives in September 1898.
- Intentional sinking
- Off Kashong Point, Seneca Lake
- Seneca Lake
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- 400 ft
- Debris field indicates a violent breakup; machinery and paddlewheel had been removed before the vessel was destroyed.
- Not established
- 2012
- Not established
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Geneva, New York
Evidence
Overall confidence: Documented (78/100)
Associated Press, via Telegram & Gazette
Discovery details, depth, and location off Kashong Point.
Build history, rebuild, dimensions, and 1898 destruction.
