Wreckage of early 19th century schooner found in Lake Ontario

OSWEGO, N.Y. – A team of underwater explorers says it has found the sunken wreck of a rare type of schooner that went down in a Lake Ontario gale during the 1830s.

The three shipwreck enthusiasts from western New York say they found the 14-metre-long Three Brothers in July in deep water west of Oswego.

Jim Kennard of Fairport says they found the wreck using side-scan sonar and worked with shipwreck historians to confirm the identity of the vessel, known as a dagger-board schooner.

The ship was hauling cargo 55 kilometres from Pultneyville in Wayne County to Oswego when it disappeared during a storm in November 1833.

The captain, two crew members and a passenger were never found.

Kennard says dagger-board schooners only were used on the Great Lakes from the early 19th century until the 1830s.