Schooner a vessel for Toronto’s buried history
The “fantastic find” earlier this month of a schooner during a condo excavation at Bathurst St. and Fort York Blvd. is the fourth — and oldest — such vessel to be found in lake fill, although so far none has been preserved. The discovery provides a glance at Toronto’s shoreline before it was filled in to make way for the Grand Trunk railway in the mid-19th century. 1. The wharf: The massive Queens Wharf ran from present day Front St. south to what is now Lake Shore Blvd., and was wide enough to accommodate railway tracks so shipments could be moved to the dock. 2. Construction: The wharf, dating from the early 1830s, was made of prefabricated timber boxes, which were towed into position and sunk with rocks. The remains that are visible in the excavation would have existed below the water line. 3. Sunken schooner: Archeologist David Robertson, of Archeological Services Inc., believes the 50-foot double-masted schooner was no longer seaworthy and was deliberately sunk so it could be used as scaffolding to build a section of the wharf. 4. Mysterious penny: A U.S. coin found under the mast in the keel was partially crushed, but further scanning with a microscope may provide its release date. It was common practice for ship builders to hide coins, perhaps for good luck. 5. Not-so-fine china: Ceramics, including broken bowls, plates and cups, were recovered from the bottom, where they most likely accumulated after the boat was sunk. The artifacts haven’t been processed yet but will all undergo conserving, cataloguing and photographing. 6. Saving the wood: The wood was preserved in an environment without oxygen. Now that it’s exposed, decay will start. Stabilizing the wood long-term is “extremely expensive” and involves replacing the water that saturates it with something else — usually an injection of glycol. 7. Fortification: Structurally intact beams from an earlier excavation have been repurposed and milled to replace window sashes and sills at Fort York.