Divers Found a Lost Shipwreck So Remarkably Preserved, They Couldn’t Believe Its Age
Divers Couldn’t Believe a Lost Shipwreck’s Age Marcoriveroph – Getty Images
A team of five deep-water divers plunged more than 300 feet beneath the surface of Lake Ontario near Toronto and uncovered a discovery far beyond what they expected. While searching for what they believed might be a ship lost in 1917, the group instead found a remarkably intact shipwreck that may be more than a century older.
Resting upright on the lakebed was a two-masted schooner with both masts still standing—an exceptionally rare sight. The Ontario Underwater Council described the vessel as being in an “extraordinary state of preservation for a Great Lakes ship.” Based on initial observations, researchers believe the schooner may date back to an under-documented period of Great Lakes shipbuilding between 1800 and 1850.
“It took us a few moments to calm ourselves down because it’s overwhelming to find a pristine wreck that’s completely intact,” said Heison Chak, president of the Ontario Underwater Council. “It still has its shape. Both masts are standing, which is incredibly rare. Most wrecks I’ve dived have lost their masts to anchors, passing vessels, or diver damage.”
The discovery followed a fiber-optic cable survey of the lakebed between Buffalo and Toronto, which detected an unusual anomaly. Initially, experts thought it might be the Rapid City, a schooner built in 1884 that sank in 1917. However, closer inspection quickly ruled that out.
James Conolly, an archaeologist and diver from Trent University, said several design features point to an earlier era. Ships built after 1850 typically used metal rigging, but this vessel is rope-rigged. “That immediately places it in the first half of the 19th century,” Conolly explained.
Additional clues include the absence of a steering wheel on the aft deck, an early windlass design, and the lack of a centerboard winch—a movable keel system that became standard on Great Lakes ships in the 1850s.
While the mid-19th century marked major advances in shipbuilding, the preceding decades were critical in establishing Great Lakes trade. Many vessels from that time were lost to storms and accidents, and much of their history was never documented.
“This is deep enough that I don’t think anyone’s ever been on it before,” Chak said. “We believe we’re the first, and that feeling was overwhelming.”
Not all experts are ready to confirm the ship’s age just yet. Charles Beeker, a Great Lakes shipwreck specialist and professor at Indiana University, cautioned that more evidence is needed. Still, he emphasized the importance of the find, noting that identifying the vessel or its shipyard could provide rare insight into early ship construction, an era with very limited surviving records.
The wreck is now heavily covered with invasive quagga mussels, which are slowly eroding the wood. Conolly warned that while deep-water wrecks once remained intact for centuries, environmental and biological factors now mean researchers may only have decades to study them.
The team plans further dives to collect detailed measurements, photographs, and wood samples in hopes of determining the ship’s exact age and origin.
“If it truly dates to between 1800 and 1850,” Chak said, “then we’ve hit the jackpot. There’s so little surviving history from that era of shipbuilding, and this could change what we know.”
.
.
About Post Author
You must be logged in to post a comment.