Sloop found 213 years after it left Kingston
An important part of Kingston’s marine history has been found on the bottom of Lake Ontario.
The wreck of the sloop Washington was discovered this June in deep waters off Oswego, N.Y., more than two centuries after the vessel sank in a fierce storm.
Images of the wreck, sitting in excellent condition on the lake bed, are being released by the eastern New York state team of volunteers who have searched for it for years.
On Nov. 6, 1803, the Washington set out from Kingston harbour, returning to Niagara on its regular monthly run.
It never arrived at its western destination.
The 53-foot trading vessel was caught up in a storm and sank.
Some debris, washed up on the Oswego shoreline the next day, was the only indication that the crew, and two Queenston merchants overseeing their goods, were lost.
“They were close by Oswego but never made it,” said Jim Kennard, the lead on the team of volunteer shipwreck hunters that made the discovery using high-resolution side scanner equipment.
The Washington is the secondoldest shipwreck found in the Great Lakes. Kennard and his partners also found the oldest, the military ship HMS Ontario, which went down in 1780.
But don’t expect the Washington to become a dive site — Kennard and crew have no intention of revealing the co-ordinates, in order to protect the wreck from divers and possible looting.
“It’s beyond any recreational dive. It’s too deep,” he said. “These are little mini-museums. The best thing we can do is take the pictures, get the dimensions, write the story and get the message to the public. This is the best thing we can do — keep it confidential and bring the stories and images back.”
The Washington would have been a familiar sight in Kingston around 1802 to 1803.
“People look out on the lake now and see pleasure boats,” Kennard said. “They don’t think back, that 200 years ago this is how our goods were transported. They were the truckers of their time. You would have seen a lot of sailing vessels going back and forth.”
The dominant trading was still in furs that arrived at Niagara before being shipped east to Kingston then to Montreal and finally to England.
“On the return trip, you were getting more general merchandise: flour and salt and household items,” Kennard said.
The Washington was believed to have been heavily loaded at Kingston with food and goods from India, perhaps spices, which were being shipped to Niagara, possibly via Oswego.
When the search team found the Washington this spring, they had only a general idea what it might be.
There were no survivors or witnesses to the incident, so the team made an educated guess as to the location, based on wind direction and where the debris was said to have washed up on shore.
Their usual method is to search a large area where multiple wrecks are thought to be sitting, based on a large database they’ve compiled.
“We were looking for several ships that might be in that area. The Washington was one of them,” Kennard said.
The director of the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston, Doug Cowie, said the discovery of the Washington will be part of a virtual exhibit they are producing about local shipwrecks.
“The Washington sailed out of Kingston on its last voyage. It’s considered Canadian history. When you see a shipwreck like this — part of the mast is erect — that’s going to figure prominently in our virtual exhibit.
“We always get excited about a find like this.”
Kennard’s work is partly sponsored by the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo, Ohio.