M. L. Sherwood (Canal Boat), damaged by canal break, 18 Sep 1853

GREAT BREAK IN THE ERIE CANAL. - The Rochester Union, of yesterday, says between 12 and 1 o'clock Sunday morning, an extensive break occurred in the Erie Canal,
on the fourteen mile level, at a point two miles east of Bushnell's Basin, where the Palmyra road crosses the canal. The distance from this city to the break is about ten miles by land.
At the time the breach occurred, the scow boat M.L. SHERWOOD, of Elmira, was
passing, and was only three times her length westward, when the towing path was swept into the valley below, and the scow, with her crew and freight - 300 bbls salt - passed out through the opening and was left a wreck, high and dry, some thirty rods below.
The Line Boat J.B. RALSTON, of Buffalo, of Griffith's Western Line, lies a wreck in the bottom of the canal a few rods west of the breach. She was a new boat last season. her cargo consists of 3,000 bushels of wheat, about one fourth of which is wet. The remainder can be removed uninjured, if the weather remains dry. The boat is badly twisted and considerably broken.
      Buffalo Daily Republic
      Tuesday, September 20, 1853