
The Bay State, a massive steamship that sunk during a storm in 1862, was pulled from the bottom of Lake Ontario by shipwreck hunters.
One of the first ships to ever use a steam-driven propeller, the Bay State, sunk in a storm in Lake Ontario in 1862, killing everyone on board. According to a report from ABC, shipwreck hunters have now discovered the site of the wreck roughly 155 miles to the west of Albany, NY.
According to researchers Jim Kennard and Roger Pawlowski, the ship is hundreds of feet below the lake’s surface. The Bay State embarked from Oswego in November of 1862, but was quickly caught in a storm forcing the captain to turn back.
The ship was 137 feet long, and began to fall apart in the rapid gusts and intensifying waves during the storm. The ship left a trail of debris roughly a quarter mile long on the lake’s bed.
Records from the era are unclear, but seven passengers and up to 11 crewmembers died in the storm. The ship was owned by a company in Cleveland, OH and built in Buffalo in 1852.
Using a remotely operated vehicle, or an ROV, Kennard and Pawlowski located the ship at the bottom of the lake. The machine got snagged on a branch, however, and the two were unable to retrieve it for a month.
When they recovered the footage from the ROV, they saw a giant propeller and an open cargo hatch on the ship’s port side. Residents recalled the goods from the ship that washed up on shore following its destruction, and the two researchers are seeking permits from the state to continue studying the wreck.
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