For many years, historians have sought the location of the wreck of the carferry MARQUETTE AND BESSEMER NO. 2 (I) which disappeared, with all hands, on Lake Erie on December 7, 1909. In April, 1975, a Port Stanley fishtug operator discovered a large hull off the north shore of the lake and it was thereafter generally assumed that the wreck was that of the long-lost carferry. Divers have recently visited the wreck, however, and have retrieved artifacts that identify the steamer as the 1893-built, 360-foot bulk carrier MERIDA. Purchased by James Playfair on September 29th, 1915, MERIDA was still officially registered to the Valley Camp Steamship Company when she disappeared on Lake Erie in the infamous Black Friday storm of October 20, 1916. There were no survivors of the sinking.

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