''Robert Gaskin'' is a ship wreck in the St. Lawrence river outside of the town of

Brockville, Ontario Brockville, formerly Elizabethtown, is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Although it is the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, it is politically independent of the county. It is included with Le ...

. The ship was being used to recover the wrecked train ferry ''William Armstrong''. Lift pontoons were being lowered to help provide lift capacity to raise the ''Armstrong'', but a chain connecting the ''Armstrong'' to a pontoon broke—as it came to the water's surface the pontoon struck the ''Gaskin'' . There was no loss of life when the Gaskin sank. There was an initial concern that the ''Gaskin'' struck the ''Armstrong'' and would have prevented the salvage of the ''Armstrong''. The ''Gaskin'', however, landed sufficiently far away that it did not damage the ''Armstrong''. Equipment on the ''Gaskin''s deck was recovered. On 11 November 1889, an attempt was made to raise the ''Gaskin''. However, a lift pontoon failed as the ''Gaskin'' was reaching the surface. The ''Gaskin'' sank again, this time landing close enough to the ''Armstrong'' that the salvage of the ''Gaskin'' would have needed to be completed before salvage of the ''Armstrong'' could continue. The final attempt to raise the ''Gaskin'' occurred on 25 November 1889. A lift pontoon attached to the rear of the ''Gaskin'' failed. The salvage of the ''Gaskin'' was abandoned.

References

Shipwrecks of the Saint Lawrence River Maritime incidents in September 1889 1863 ships {{ship-stub