A British warship which sank during the American Revolution was discovered at the bottom of Lake Ontario. Considered as one of the “Holy Grail” shipwrecks in the Great Lake, the warship was surprisingly well-preserved deep in the cold water.

The wreck founders regard it as a war grave and have no plans to raise the ship or remove any of its artifacts and they said that the ship was still considered the property of the British Admiralty.  The 80-foot sloop of war is the oldest shipwreck and the only British warship still fully intact ever found in the Great Lakes, said shipwreck enthusiasts Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville. 

The HMS Ontario which was lost during a gale in 1780, barely left any traces together with 130 people onboard.  Kennard and Scoville, in order to locate the HMS Ontario, used side-scanning sonar and an unmanned submersible.  Kennard and Scoville, however, declined to give the vessel’s exact location.  They only said that it was found off the southern shore.  The shipwreck is up to 500 feet deep and cannot be inaccessible by anyone except for experienced divers.

Canadian author, Arthur Britton Smith, who chronicled the history of the HMS Ontario in a 1997 book, “The Legend of the Lake”, when shown the underwater video of the find said: If it wasn’t for the zebra mussels, she looks like she only sunk last week.  He said the dark, cold freshwater acts as a perfect preservative.  At that depth, there is no light and no oxygen to hasten decomposition and little marine life to feed on the wood.

On October 31, 1780, the HMS Ontario went down with a garrison of 60 British soldiers, 40 crew mostly Canadians and about 30 American war prisoners.  The warship had been launched only five months earlier and was used to ferry troops and supplies along upstate New York’s frontier.  During that time, the Ontario was considered the biggest British ship on the Great Lakes but it never engaged in battle, said Smith.

For decades, explorers have been searching for the Ontario and there were many false finds over the years, said Eric Bloomquist, interpretative program manager at Old Fort Niagara.

After locating the wreck with the sonar, the explorers used the submersible to confirm their find, documenting their discovery with more than 80 minutes of underwater video.  The ship was identified for its rare feature, the two crow’s nests on each mast and another was the decoratively carved scroll bow stem.  The explorers also found two cannons two anchors and the ship’s bell.

The clincher was the quarter galleries on either side of the stem – a kind of balcony with windows typically placed on the sides of the stern-castle, a high, tower-like structure at the back of a ship that housed the officer’s quarters.

One of the explorers, Kennard, said that they will not be returning to the site as they have gathered enough video.  Kennard hoped to make a documentary about the discovery.