A 1780 British Warship "Holy Grail" Discovered

A 22-gun British warship that sank 1780 during the American Revolution has been discovered at the bottom of Lake Ontario. The ship has long been regarded as one of the "Holy Grail" shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. The ship has astonishingly been well-preserved in the cold, deep water.

The Ontario went down on October 31st, 1780, with a garrison of 60 British soldiers, a crew of 40, mostly Canadians, and about 30 American war prisoners. This warship had been launched only five months earlier and was used to ferry troops and supplies along upstate New York's frontier. Although it was the biggest British ship on the Great Lakes at the time, it never saw battle. The British conducted a sweeping search for this ship when it went down but tried to keep the sinking secret from Gen. George Washington's troops because it was a huge blow to the British defenses.

Shipwreck enthusiasts Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville used side-scanning sonar and an unmanned submersible to locate the HMS Ontario, which was lost during a gale in 1780 with as many as 130 people aboard. The 80-foot warship is the oldest shipwreck and the only fully intact British warship ever found in the Great Lakes. To have a Revolutionary War vessel that's practically intact is unbelievable. It's an archaeological miracle. The ship wreck is still considered the property of the British Admiralty and regarded as a war grave and there are no plans to raise it or remove any of its artifacts.

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