A group of shipwreck enthusiasts located a sunken Bay State ship from the mid-19th century in Lake Ontario Tuesday. The ship is assumed to have sunk after a storm 150 years ago and is believed to be the oldest steamship found in the lake.
Explorers Jim Kennard and Roger Pawlowski used a sonar system to discover the ship off Lake Ontario's southern shore in New York.
Congratulations to TEC Fellow, Jim Kennard, the recent recipient of the 2015 Joyce S. Hayward Award by the Association...
Posted by The Explorers Club on Wednesday, September 30, 2015
"We were thrilled," said Kennard, a diving and shipwreck expert, according to Reuters. "It had been a really bad season for us because of wind and waves and then long hours on the lake and finding nothing."
The Bay State was found hundreds of feet underwater. Based on records, the steamship left Oswego in November 1862 for Ohio and was carrying a wide range of products. The ship faced strong winds from a storm en route, which compelled the captain to go back.
"That was the beginning of the end," Kennard added, the Associated Press reported.
The ship is measured to be about 137 feet long and was originally made in Buffalo, N.Y. in 1852. Only an empty lifeboat was recovered after the storm, and some of the merchandise it was supposed to transport were carried ashore at Fair Haven. There were no survivors out of the 16 to 18 people aboard the ship and seven passengers when it sank, according to the Democrat and Chronicle.
The Bay State is owned by the state, and since it is non-military, there are no plans to tow it ashore.
An estimated 6,000 to 8,000 ships have sunk in the Great Lakes, and some of those that are hauled were either burned or crushed to pieces. Over 200 ships can still be found in Lake Ontario, Syracuse.com reported.
Check out some footage of the Bay State below:
