In August, the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo, Ohio, reported the discovery of one of the oldest, fully intact shipwrecks of a commercial sailing vessel in Lake Ontario.
The Washington was a small, single-masted sloop built near Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1797. The ship was used on Lake Erie for several years and then transported to Canada for use on Lake Ontario. It was the first ship to sail on two Great Lakes. On November 6, 1803, the Washington set sail from Kingston, Ontario, with five men on-board when she met her fatal demise in Lake Ontario.
The shipwreck exploration team of Jim Kennard, Roger Pawlowksi and Roland Stevens — funded by a grant from the National Museum of the Great Lakes — discovered the Washington’s remains near Oswego, New York.
For more information, visit shipwreckworld.com.
