Divers seeking lost shipwreck near Toronto find an even older mystery

A Canadian dive team searching for the century-old wreck of the Rapid City may have stumbled upon a far rarer prize: a pristine shipwreck that could date back 50 years earlier than expected, offering a rare window into a little-understood era of shipbuilding.

The "unidentified object" — first seen as a large anomaly in 2017 during a fibre-optic cable survey on the bottom of Lake Ontario from Buffalo to Toronto — caught the attention of Trent University archeologist James Conolly, who was hoping to study an undisturbed wreck.

Based on archival records, the vessel was initially thought to be the Rapid City, a two-masted schooner built in 1884 and used as a stonehooker, until it was lost in 1917.

The dive team, led by exploration diver and Ontario Underwater Council president Heison Chak, investigated the site to test Conolly's theory that the wreck's 100-metre depth had shielded it from human activity.

Chak's dive brought back images by photographer Jeff Lindsay that revealed a vessel so intact, its standing masts and topmasts remain in place.

"It took us a few moments to calm ourselves down because it's overwhelming finding a pristine wreck that is all in one piece," Chak said. "It's got its shape. It hasn't broken down both masts. We saw two — both masts were standing, which is pretty rare.

"In all the rest that I have dove, either they have fallen off, because boats come across them, anchors wreck them [or] divers damage them.

"This is deep enough that I don't think anyone's been on it. I think we're the first group and that joy was just overwhelming."

Chak, a veteran diver with over 20 years of experience at dozens of shipwreck sites in Canada, the U.S. and the Carribean, said the find is a career first.

"I have never seen a top mast in any wrecks that I have dove in Ontario or in the St. Lawrence River."

Closer examination suggested the ship might also be much older than originally anticipated.

"It's rope-rigged," Conolly said. "Metal rigging is only a common feature after the 1850s. So it immediately puts it into, likely, the first half of the 19th century."

Conolly noted other features that were unusual, including the absence of a wheel on the aft deck, a lack of centreboard winch and an early windlass design — all hinting the vessel could be 50 to 100 years older than the Rapid City.

"It doesn't have a centreboard," Conolly said, referring to a kind of movable keel that was a major advancement for Great Lakes ships, particularly during the second canal period, a time related to the construction of the second Welland canal in the 1850s. This movable keel helped vessels counteract leeward travel, which is when the pushes the ship sideways.