Explorers Find 2nd-Oldest Confirmed Shipwreck In Great Lakes

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A team of underwater explorers says it has found the second-oldest confirmed shipwreck in the Great Lakes.

The Washington, an American-built, Canadian-owned sloop, sank in Lake Ontario during a storm more than 200 years ago. The three-member team says it discovered the shipwreck earlier this summer off Oswego, New York. Explorers say images captured by a remotely operated vehicle confirmed the wreck is the Washington.

The 53-foot-long ship was carrying at least five people when it sank in 1803. All aboard died. The sloop was built on Lake Erie in Pennsylvania and hauled across the Niagara Isthmus to Lake Ontario in 1802.

The oldest vessel found in the Great Lakes is HMS Ontario, a British warship that sank in Lake Ontario in 1780. It was discovered in 2008.