This article was posted by Lynn Strong of Oswego on the Facebook group “You know your from Oswego, NY when” – Thank you Lynn.
The schooner, called the Three Brothers, is a rare dagger-board schooner built in 1827. The ship had a short life, however, as it sank on Nov. 12, 1833 in Lake Ontario on its way to Oswego.The schooner was found in July by Jim Kennard, Roger Pawlowski, and Roland Stevens, who found the wreck using side scan sonar. The schooner measured 45 feet in length and 13 feet wide and might be the first fully functioning dagger-board schooner ever found, according to the Oswegonian.The schooner doesn’t have a raised cabin, but only a small area below deck.
“Oswego was an early key port of Lake Ontario where numerous ships came from Niagara, Toronto, Kingston and other cities in the North,” Kennard told the Oswegonian. “As a result of boat traffic over the years, there is bound to be shipwrecks on the bottom of the lake.”This is why Kennard and his team have been searching Lake Ontario for shipwrecks for the past three years. When they finally discovered the schooner, it took them almost two more months to confirm that the ship was indeed the missing Three Brothers from 1833. Using an article from that time period that reported the schooner missing and weeks of research and numerous dives, they finally confirmed its identity.Kennard has been diving and exploring the Great Lakes for more than 40 years, finding more than 200 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, Lake Champlain, the Finger Lakes of New York, and in the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Kennard and Dan Scoville discovered the 234-year-old British warship, HMS Ontario, which brought them to the public eye when it was found to be one of the oldest shipwrecks ever found in the Great Lakes.“[This boat] is a one-of-a-kind boat so it’s very significant,” said Kennard.
Dagger-board schooners were shallow draft ships with wood panels that extended through the keel to be used in the open water. Dagger-boards, as the panels were called, prevented the schooner from being pushed sideways in deep water.
“Oswego was an early key port of Lake Ontario where numerous ships came from Niagara, Toronto, Kingston and other cities in the North,” Kennard told the Oswegonian. “As a result of boat traffic over the years, there is bound to be shipwrecks on the bottom of the lake.”This is why Kennard and his team have been searching Lake Ontario for shipwrecks for the past three years. When they finally discovered the schooner, it took them almost two more months to confirm that the ship was indeed the missing Three Brothers from 1833. Using an article from that time period that reported the schooner missing and weeks of research and numerous dives, they finally confirmed its identity.Kennard has been diving and exploring the Great Lakes for more than 40 years, finding more than 200 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, Lake Champlain, the Finger Lakes of New York, and in the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Kennard and Dan Scoville discovered the 234-year-old British warship, HMS Ontario, which brought them to the public eye when it was found to be one of the oldest shipwrecks ever found in the Great Lakes.“[This boat] is a one-of-a-kind boat so it’s very significant,” said Kennard.
Dagger-board schooners were shallow draft ships with wood panels that extended through the keel to be used in the open water. Dagger-boards, as the panels were called, prevented the schooner from being pushed sideways in deep water.
The discovery was a complete surprise, Kennard said in his blog Shipwreck World. The team was not expecting to find this type of a shipwreck since schooners were not thought to be shipwrecked in that area.
Click on this link to view actual video of the ship.
