In the early 1800s, commercial shipping and fishing helped grow the communities near Lake Erie State Park, and the harbors at Barcelona and Dunkirk developed as Great Lakes ships docked to load and unload wheat, coal, and timber, though by mid-century railroad competition drew much of this traffic away from the smaller harbors. During Lake Erie's shipping heyday, the waters off the park saw many mishaps and shipwrecks, with as many as 80 recorded, ranging from minor incidents to major losses of property and life. Among the most notable was the schooner New Connecticut, which capsized in a sudden squall on September 4, 1833; while the crew escaped, Mary Appleby remained trapped in her cabin as the vessel drifted on its side for days, surviving on a cracker and an onion before being found alive when the ship was finally righted. The three-masted Canadian schooner Manzanilla lost its captain overboard only three months after launch, later ran aground temporarily in 1879, and in 1887 was struck by a gale while carrying black stone from Cleveland to Toronto; the crew reached shore safely, and Captain George O'Brien, after clinging to the remaining floating portion of the ship, was rescued nine hours later by the Beecher and taken to Dunkirk. The Golden Fleece, built in 1862, suffered repeated misfortunes, including two men lost overboard in 1866, at least five instances of damage, three groundings, and two collisions before it was driven ashore near the present-day state park on October 17, 1890, while bound from Buffalo to Erie, Pennsylvania, and after failed salvage attempts was burned by arsonists in 1895. The steamship Helen Strong met disaster in late November 1846 when a storm burst a steam pipe, leaving the vessel uncontrollable as it washed into a cliff and broke up on the rocks; passengers were hauled up the cliff by rope after one passenger reached help, and only two of the more than 60 aboard were lost. Built in 1862 by Mason & Bidwell, the Passaic reflected the shift from paddle-wheel steamers to propeller-powered ships, but after years marked by collisions and groundings it likely sprang a leak in early November 1891, the crew abandoned it for the barge Hattie that it was towing, and the lumber-laden steamer drifted to Dunkirk, broke into pieces, and could not be salvaged.