2nd-Oldest Shipwreck Found in Great Lakes

The second-oldest confirmed shipwreck in the Great Lakes, an American-built, Canadian-owned sloop that sank in Lake Ontario more than 200 years ago, has been found, a team of underwater explorers says. The three-member Western New York-based team said it discovered the shipwreck this summer in deep water off Oswego, in central New York. Images captured by a remotely operated vehicle confirmed it is the Washington, which sank with no survivors during a storm in 1803, team member Jim Kennard tells the AP.

"This one is very special. We don't get too many like this," says Kennard, who, along with Roger Pawlowski and Roland "Chip" Stevens, has found numerous wrecks in Lake Ontario and other waterways. The 53-foot-long ship was carrying at least five people and a cargo of merchandise, including goods from India, when it set sail from Kingston, Ontario, for its homeport of Niagara, Ontario, on Nov. 6, 1803. The vessel was caught in a fierce storm and sank. The oldest vessel found in the Great Lakes is the HMS Ontario, a British warship that sank in Lake Ontario in 1780. Kennard and another explorer found that wreck in 2008. (In June, he found a wreck that sank with 285 tons of railroad iron in 1868.)