‘Smoking gun’ confirms identity of War of 1812 ship
The discovery of a War of 1812 warship came about because someone literally stumbled on its exposed ribs, says the marine archeologist who excavated it back in 2001.
“That person was a member of a marine heritage society and knew it was a ship,” said Ken Cassavoy. “There are 20 or 30 shipwrecks around the area. They thought it was significant and they contacted me through a friend.”
That ship was HMS General Hunter, a vessel lost to the U.S. navy during the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813 and which was pushed up on a beach at Southampton, Ont., in 1816 during a gale on Lake Huron.
Interpretive panels talking about the vessel, its discovery and excavation make up part of an exhibit at Welland Museum. Cassavoy was there for its opening Saturday afternoon.
“When we looked at it initially, from the size of timbers it appeared to be a fairly big ship under the sand.”
Cassavoy, now a Welland Museum board member, said at first there were two possibilities being considered for what vessel might lie under the sand, both of which turned out to be dead wrong.
In 2002, he and a group of volunteers went back and excavated a fairly long section of the middle of the ship to see what was there.
“We found what was an old ship and well-built, what might be a military ship from the early 19th century.”
A major excavation took place in 2004. Artifacts were taken and documented before the ship was buried on the beach under the wet sand.
Cassavoy said that was the best way to protect it. He said the only other way to study the ship without it being destroyed would have been in a water tank, and that would have costs millions of dollars.
“We found a lot of clues on the ship … U.S. and British and Canadian military buttons. That suggested a military use.”
As work was being done to excavate, remove and document artifacts, a researcher in an American archive was looking back in history to see if they could discover anything about it.
“The researcher found a smoking gun … a document which told the story of the last two days of the General Hunter.”
After the vessel was captured by the Americans during the battle on the lake it was later sold to private interests in 1816. But it again ended up in military hands when it was sold to the
U.S. army and used as a transport vessel after being renamed Hunter.
“They found a document by the captain and crew that told the whole story.”
Cassavoy said it’s somewhat unusual in archeology to have that much detail and to have a story that has a beginning, middle and end, but that it does happen at times.