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| Lake Ontario's Oldest Wreck Found |
Using side-scan sonar and an unmanned submersible, shipwreck enthusiasts Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville uncovered a 22-gun British warship that sank during the American Revolution.
Regarded as one of the many Holy Grail shipwrecks on the Great Lakes, the HMS Ontario was found at the bottom of Lake Ontario, preserved for more than two centuries by the deep, cold waters of the lake.
HMS Ontario went down in a gale in 1780 with as many as 130 people - 60 British soldiers, a crew of about 40 Canadians and possibly 430 American prisoners of war - on board. She had been launched only five months prior and was used to ferry troops and supplies along the frontier of upstate New York. It was the biggest British ship on the lake but never saw battle.
Scoville and Kennard regard the wreck as a war grave and have no plans to raise it or remove any artifacts. The ship, they said, is still considered property of the British Admiralty.
At a depth of 500-feet, the pair don't expect trouble from looters but are keep the location a secret, saying only that it was found off of the souther shore.
The 80-foot sloop is the oldest shipwreck and the only fully intact British warship ever found on the Great Lakes. "To have a Revolutionary War vessel that's practically intact is unbelievable," Canadian author and HMS Ontario enthusiast Arthur Britton Smith told Fox News. "It's an archaeological miracle."
Found lying partially on her side, her two masts extending almost 70 feet from the lake bed, HMS Ontario was startlingly intact. "Usually when ships go down in big storms, they get beat up quite a bit," Scoville told the Sydney Morning Herald. "They don't sink nice and square. This went down in a huge storm and it still managed to stay intact. There are even two windows that aren't broken. It's a beautiful ship."
"If it wasn't for the zebra mussels, she looks like she only sunk last week," Smith said. The depth the ship rests at is perfect for preservation. There is no light and no oxygen to cause decomposition and few breeds of marine life to feed on the wood.
Few traces of the ship remained after he sinking. Blankets, several hats, compasses, the binnacle and hatchway gratings drifted ashore the day after he sinking, which the British kept quiet for fear of heartening George Washington and his troops. The ship's sails were found adrift in the lake a few days later. In 1781, six bodies from the ship were found near Wilson, New York, but that was the last anyone heard from her.
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