{"id":49309,"date":"2025-11-23T14:36:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T14:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/49309\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T14:36:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T14:36:20","slug":"shipwreck-that-could-date-back-to-the-early-1800s-found-completely-intact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/49309\/","title":{"rendered":"Shipwreck that could date back to the early 1800s found completely intact"},"content":{"rendered":"

The team diving in Lake Ontario stumbled upon a completely intact shipwreck \u2014 with its masts still standing \u2014 that could date back to the early 1800s, giving them insight into an era of Great Lakes shipbuilding history now faded with time.<\/p>\n

The unidentified ship, discovered 100 meters below the surface of the massive lake by Trent University archaeologist James Conolly, was first noticed as a \u201clarge anomaly\u201d in 2017 during a fibre-optic cable survey on the bottom,\u00a0according to the CBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took us a few moments to calm ourselves down because it\u2019s overwhelming finding a pristine wreck that is all in one piece,\u201d Ontario Underwater Council President Heison Chak, who led the dive, told the outlet.<\/p>\n

\"ScubaA Canadian dive team stumbled upon a shipwreck that could date back to the early 1800s. CP<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s got its shape. It hasn\u2019t broken down both masts. We saw two \u2014 both masts were standing, which is pretty rare. In all the rest that I have dove, either they have fallen off, because boats come across them, anchors wreck them [or] divers damage them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chak, who has two decades of experience diving at shipwreck sites in Canada, the U.S., and the Caribbean, said he has never happened upon a topmast, which is located above the lower mast and supports the rigging and yards for a topsail.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never seen a top mast in any wrecks that I have dove in Ontario or in the St. Lawrence River,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"LandscapeOntario Underwater Council president Heison Chak, who has two decades of experience diving at shipwreck sites, said he has never happened upon a topmast. desertsands \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

The dive team \u2014 which had originally set out to find the wreck of the Rapid City built in 1884 and lost in 1917 \u2014 estimated the age of the newly discovered ship based on its lack of a centreboard and wheel on the aft deck as well as its older \u201crope\u201d rigging.<\/p>\n

\u201cMetal rigging is only a common feature after the 1850s. So it immediately puts it into, likely, the first half of the 19th century,\u201d archaeologist Connolly told the outlet.<\/p>\n

Being that the vessel was so far down at more than 300 feet, dive team leader Chak presumes his crew was the first to ever find it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is deep enough that I don\u2019t think anyone\u2019s been on it. I think we\u2019re the first group and that joy was just overwhelming,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The team diving in Lake Ontario stumbled upon a completely intact shipwreck \u2014 with its masts still standing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10585,21114,9,11,10,23598,1076],"class_list":["post-49309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-canada","tag-exploration","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-shipwrecks","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}