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A Canadian diving team searching for the century-old wreck of the Rapid City may have stumbled upon a much 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 major anomaly in 2017 during a study of fiber optic cable at the bottom of Lake Ontario from Buffalo to Toronto, caught the attention of Trent University archaeologist James Conolly, who was hoping to study an intact shipwreck.
According to archival records, the ship was initially thought to be the Rapid City, a two-masted schooner built in 1884 and used as a gaff, 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 protected it from human activity.
“I don’t think anyone has been in this.”
Chak’s dive brought back images by photographer Jeff Lindsay that revealed a vessel so intact that its masts and topmasts remain in place.
“It took us a few moments to calm down because it’s overwhelming to find pristine remains that are all in one piece,” Chak said. “It has its shape. Both masts have not broken. We saw two, both masts were standing, which is quite rare.”
“In all the others that I have dived into, or have fallen, because boats cross them, the anchors destroy them [or] divers damage them.
“This is deep enough that I don’t think anyone has been in it. I think we’re the first group and that joy was just overwhelming.”
Chak, a veteran diver with more than 20 years of experience at dozens of shipwreck sites in Canada, the United States and the Caribbean, said the find is a first in his career.
“I have never seen a mast on any shipwreck I have ever gone down on in Ontario or the St. Lawrence River.”
The wreck could be older than expected
Closer examination suggested that the ship could also be much older than originally anticipated.
“It’s rope-rigged,” Conolly said. “Metal rigging is a common feature only after the 1850s. Therefore, this immediately places it, probably, in the first half of the 19th century.”
Conolly noted other features that were unusual, including the absence of a wheel on the afterdeck, the lack of a daggerboard capstan, and an early windlass design, all of which suggest that the ship could be 50 to 100 years older than the Rapid City.
“It doesn’t have a daggerboard,” Conolly said, referring to a type of moving keel that was an important development for Great Lakes ships, particularly during the Second Canal period, an era associated with the construction of the Second Welland Canal in the 1850s. This moving keel helped ships counteract lee drift, which is when the boat is pushed sideways.
If true, the wreck could offer a tantalizing glimpse into a little-understood and largely undocumented chapter in the history of Great Lakes shipbuilding.
Little understood period 1800-1850
The period was a major economic boom for the region, which saw the beginning of the current strong trade relationship between Canada and the United States. Hundreds of vessels were built to facilitate that trade, but many were small-scale shipyards that left few formal records.
There were also high loss rates, giving the ships a short lifespan thanks to frequent accidents and storms, all against a backdrop of major technological transition from sailing ships to steamships, which led to old designs being quickly discarded without comprehensive records being kept.
Charles Beeker is a professor at Indiana University and has dedicated his more than 40-year career to researching and preserving Great Lakes shipwrecks. Beeker told CBC News it would be rare to find a ship in the Great Lakes from before the US Civil War.
He also noted that based on the images CBC News was able to share with him, there was not enough evidence to definitively conclude whether the ship is in fact from the 1800-1850 era and that more research is needed.
“I don’t want to diminish its value,” he said. “They may be able to identify the ship, perhaps identify the shipyard, and it would be useful to look at an actual intact ship in the background to compare it to what little we have in terms of drawings, tonnage and information on these ships, and the older it is, the less information we have.”
He said that of the estimated 6,500 shipwrecks found at the bottom of the Great Lakes, few of them are known to be as pristine as this one appears to be.
“The fact that it’s intact makes it intriguing,” he said.
Chak and Conolly said they plan to return to the wreck next diving season to conduct a dimensional study and take a wood sample so they can accurately date the ship.
They are giving public lectures, including one at the University of Toronto on Monday, to raise awareness about preserving maritime history and secure funding to document the wreck and protect its rare standing masts.
