The Bay State shipwreck, which occurred more than 150 years ago on Lake Ontario, was discovered last month by two New York men.
Jim Kennard and Roger Pawlowski found the Bay State, one of the first propeller-driven steamships to navigate the Great Lakes, in deep water off the southern shore of Lake Ontario near
Fair Haven, New York, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reported.
The steamship disappeared Nov. 4, 1862, when it left Oswego, New York, on its way to Ohio with general merchandise on board. The newspaper said that the ship ended up in a storm and attempted to return to Oswego but sank before it could get there.
"On board the Bay State were between 16 to 18 persons, seven passengers along with officers and crew,"
Kennard wrote on his website Shipwreck World. "There were no records kept of the crew so the exact number is not known."
"Based on the pieces of wreckage found on the floor of the lake, it appears that Captain Marshall had turned the Bay State around and was heading back to Oswego. This was the beginning of the end as the Bay State was starting to come apart depositing parts of the ship on the bottom of the lake. Within another quarter mile the steamship foundered," he continued.
Syracuse.com wrote that the Bay State was one of more than 600 ships that wrecked in Lake Ontario and some 6,000 to 8,000 throughout the Great Lakes. More than 200 ships remain in Lake Ontario.
"While searching for shipwrecks in Lake Ontario in late August 2015 the sonar return of the lake bottom spiked up on the boat depth finder just before an image of a shipwreck appeared on the display of the side scan sonar system," Kennard wrote of the discovery.
Kennard and Pawlowski use remote-operated underwater vehicles and teams of divers to find sunken boats throughout the Great Lakes, according to the Democrat & Chronicle.
The newspaper said that the Bay State shipwreck belongs to the state and there are no plans to bring it to the surface.
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