Mysterious shipwreck reveals its secrets

AN EXCITING discovery of a doomed ship that had laid buried out of sight for 200 years in a famous lake could end up rewriting history.

The remains of a shipwreck found in the Ohio waters of Lake Erie.

A SHIPWRECK discovered in Lake Erie in 2015 may be the oldest found in the famous lake on the US-Canadian border, experts say.

The wreck was first spotted on a sonar screen by Tom Kowalczyk, a member of the Cleveland Underwater Explorers. Subsequent dives to the ship, which sank in Ohio waters, have provided intriguing new details about the vessel. Researchers have also been trawling through historical records to gain fresh insight into the schooner.

Shipwreck hunters spent eight days this summer unearthing and examining the remains of the ship. It is now believed that the ship is the Lake Serpent, which sank nearly 200 years ago.

Built in Cleveland in 1821, the Lake Serpent carried cargo for eight years until it sank in late September or early October 1829. It’s not clear what caused the ship to sink, though some experts believe it may have been the result of a bad storm.

Shipwreck hunters and marine archaeologists say the wreckage found is most likely from a sailing ship that went down nearly two centuries ago. Picture: David M VanZandt/Cleveland Underwater Explorers Inc

That would make the wreckage the oldest ever found in the shallowest of the Great Lakes.

Newspaper reports from the time have provided vital clues.

On October 8, 1829, the Cleveland Weekly Herald reported that the Lake Serpent had left four weeks earlier to get stone from Put-In-Bay on the lake’s South Bass Island.

“The newspaper was able to confirm that the Lake Serpent had loaded the stone at Put-In-Bay, but hadn’t been seen since,” noted the Cleveland Underwater Explorers on their website.

The discovery would make it the oldest ever found in the lake. Picture: David M VanZandt/Cleveland Underwater Explorers Inc

There is, however, some debate among the marine archaeologists and shipwreck hunters about how confident they are it is indeed the Lake Serpent. Nonetheless, the National Museum of the Great Lakes recently released the results of its research citing several signs to suggest that it is the missing schooner.

Things such as the size of the wreck, the stone cargo, and what appears to be a carving at the ship’s bow all point to it being Lake Serpent, the museum said. Historical records show the ship had a serpent’s head carved near the front — an unusual feature for a vessel of that era.

The site also seems to be near where it was thought to go down near Kelleys Island off the Ohio shoreline.

Lake Erie has more than 2000 shipwrecks in its waters.

Kowalczk said he’s pretty confident the wreck is the Lake Serpent because there are enough findings that line up.

“We haven’t found anything that says it’s something different,” he said.

It was reported that the bodies of the vessel’s captain and his brother, Ezra and Robert Wright, washed ashore in Lorain County, Ohio in the first week of October 1829.

Lake Erie is a graveyard for a huge number of vessels. Many have been found in recent years by a small, dedicated band from the museum and the Cleveland Underwater Explorers club. As the shallowest of the Great Lakes, wrecks in Lake Erie are easier to spot for shipwreck hunters.

Lake Erie is the fourth largest of the five Great Lakes.

The Great Lakes continue to reveal their shipwreck secrets. Earlier this year, for example, experts announced the discovery of the 119-year-old shipwreck Margaret Olwill at the bottom of Lake Erie. The wooden steam barge sank during an 1899 nor’easter.

In May 2008, two explorers discovered the British warship HMS Ontario, which was lost in Lake Ontario in 1780.

Later that year, the explorers Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville also discovered a rare 19th century schooner sitting upright 150m under the waves of Lake Ontario.

In 2016, Kennard was also part of a team of underwater explorers who discovered the second-oldest confirmed shipwreck in the Great Lakes. The Washington, an American-built, Canadian-owned sloop sank in Lake Ontario during a fierce storm in 1803.

This story originally appeared on Fox News and was republished with permission.