2 sunken canal boats from mid-1800s found off NY’s Lake Ontario; explorers make unusual find

OSWEGO, N.Y. – The wrecks of two 19th-century canal boats have been found on the bottom of Lake Ontario, an unusual discovery because such vessels typically weren’t used on open water, a team of New York shipwreck hunters said Wednesday.

The three-member team from the Rochester area said they discovered the boats using side-scan sonar last year while searching for shipwrecks on Lake Ontario’s eastern end. The sunken canal boats — one 65 feet long and the other 78 feet long — were found within a few miles of each other about midway between Oswego and Sackets Harbor, said Jim Kennard of Fairport.

Two professional divers using apparatus for deep-water work captured video images of the wrecks, located more than 200 feet (60 metres) below the surface, Kennard said.

The wrecks’ identifications haven’t been determined, but Kennard and fellow explorers Roger Pawlowski and Roland Stevens believe the vessels were built in the mid-1800s when the Erie Canal was widened to accommodate larger boats.

Records of more than 600 Lake Ontario shipwrecks didn’t turn up a match for either canal vessel, the explorers said.

Kennard said the two shallow-draft boats were probably being towed by steamboats when they sunk. Both showed damage indicating that their cargoes may have shifted during fast-changing weather conditions typical for Lake Ontario, he said.

Kennard said the vessels were likely older boats whose owners tried to get one more voyage out of them hauling cargo on the lake, which is connected to the Erie Canal by the Oswego Canal.

“They took a chance,” Kennard said. “It didn’t work.”