As it turned out, it was also a great opportunity for students to make a new shipwreck discovery of their own.

Two CSHEL members — Mark Lundine and Hunter Tipton — had previously identified an interesting underwater target in Lake Ontario in August 2021. While conducting an underwater survey, Lundine, a doctoral student at UD, and Hunter Tipton, who was a student at UD during the initial discovery and is now a marine technician who works with Trembanis and on the R/V Hugh R. Sharp, spotted something that looked interesting on their side-scan sonar. It looked man-made, possibly wooden, and sparked their interest.

Unfortunately, as it was found during the last half-hour of their last day in the harbor, Lundine and Tipton couldn’t map it further. Hoping they would get an opportunity to explore the object in the future, they logged the location and kept it in the back of their minds.

During the summer of 2022, when the two were once again able to travel to Sackets Harbor, they and the other members of the lab group revisited the site and performed high-resolution surveys using a combination of Norbit Multibeam and EdgeTech side-scan sonar and magnetometer measurements from an Iver3 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV).

The surveys included underwater photography and video from a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). These combined datasets allowed the team to confirm that the remains are those of a wooden ship. This important and sensitive information was immediately turned over to the New York State Historical Preservation Office to help preserve and further identify the wreck.

“We went over this mysterious target that we found the summer before with the AUV. We got some multibeam sonar over it, and then we sent an ROV down, which is a robot that you can remote control that has a really nice video camera,” said Lundine. “Hunter was piloting the ROV and sure enough, he went down and we could see this wooden structure that, length-wise, was between 10 and 20 meters.”

Trembanis explained that finding any shipwreck, let alone a wooden shipwreck that possibly dates to the 19th century, is not an everyday occurrence.

“Anytime you find a shipwreck, you’re opening up a story and a moment in human history,” said Trembanis. “Finding this wreck in the Great Lakes, it’s not just a new chapter, it’s potentially a whole new book, or, perhaps, a whole new wing of a library.”

Having located the shipwreck, Trembanis said it was important to inform the New York Historical Preservation Office so they can now try to identify and protect the wreck.

Getting the wreck out into the public arena also gives folks who might be familiar with these types of ships and history a chance to help with the identification. The data collected by the lab group includes measurements, images and diagnostic information that may also be able to help people familiar with different, historic boats identify the ship.

“It’s like a car enthusiast who can say, ‘That’s the axle of a ’44 Ford Coupe,’ that sort of thing,” said Trembanis.