Divers seeking lost shipwreck near Toronto find an even older mystery

A canadian river plunk team up trenchant for the century-old wreck of the speedy City may have stumbled upon a far rarer prize: a pristine shipwreck that could date back 50 years earlier than expected, offering a rare window into a little-understood era of shipbuilding.

The "unidentified object" — first seen as a large anomaly in 2017 during a fibre-optic cable survey on the bottom of Lake Ontario from Buffalo to Toronto — caught the attention of Trent University archeologist James Conolly, who was hoping to study an undisturbed wreck.

Based on archival records, the vessel was initially thought to be the Rapid City, a two-masted schooner built in 1884 and used as a stonehooker, until it was lost in 1917.

The dive team, led by exploration diver and Ontario Underwater Council president Heison Chak, investigated the site to test Conolly's theory that the wreck's 100-metre depth had shielded it from human activity.

Chak's dive brought back images by photographer Jeff Lindsay that revealed a vessel so intact, its standing masts and topmasts remain in place.

"It took us a few moments to calm ourselves down because it's overwhelming finding a pristine wreck that is all in one piece," Chak said. "It's got its shape. It hasn't broken down both masts. We saw two — 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.

"This is deep enough that I don't think anyone's been on it. I think we're the first group and that joy was just overwhelming."

Chak, a veteran diver with over 20 years of experience at dozens of shipwreck sites in Canada, the U.S. And the Carribean, said the find is a career first.

"I have never seen a top mast in any wrecks that I have dove in Ontario or in the St. Lawrence River."

Closer examination suggested the ship might also be much older than originally anticipated.

"It's rope-rigged," Conolly said. "Metal rigging is only a common feature after the 1850s. So it immediately puts it into, likely, the first half of the 19th century."

Conolly noted other features that were unusual, including the absence of a wheel on the aft deck, a lack of centreboard winch and an early windlass design — all hinting the vessel could be 50 to 100 years older than the Rapid City.

"It doesn't have a centreboard," Conolly said, referring to a kind of movable keel that was a major advancement for Great Lakes ships, particularly during the second canal period, a time related to the construction of the second Welland canal in the 1850s. This movable keel helped vessels counteract leeward travel, which is when the pushes the ship sideways.

If true, the wreck could offer a tantalizing glimpse into a poorly understood and largely undocumented chapter in the history of Great Lakes shipbuilding.

The period was a major economic boom for the region, which saw the start of today's robust trading relationship between Canada and the United States. Hundreds of vessels were built to facilitate that trade, but many were small-scale shipyards that left few formal records.

There were also high loss rates, giving ships short lifespans thanks to frequent accidents and storms — all set against a backdrop of major technological transition from sailing vessels to steamboats, leading to old designs being quickly discarded without fulsome records being kept.

"I don't want to diminish the value of it," he said. "They may be able to identify the vessel, maybe identify the shipyard, and that would be useful to look at an actual intact vessel on the bottom to compare to what little we do have in terms of drawings, and tonnage and information from these vessels, and the older you go, the less information we have."

He said that, out of the estimated 6,500 shipwrecks that lie on the bottom of the Great Lakes, few of them are known to be as pristine as this one appears to be.

"The intactness of it makes it intriguing," he said.

Chak and Conolly said they plan to return to the wreck in the next dive season in order to conduct a dimension survey and take a wood sample so the vessel can be accurately dated.

They’re giving public lectures, including one at the University of Toronto on Monday, to raise awareness about preserving maritime history, and secure funding to document the wreck and protect its rare standing masts.

Reporter

Colin Butler is a veteran journalist with 20 years' experience in print, radio and television in seven Canadian cities. You can email him at colin.butler@cbc.ca.

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