ONTARIO LAKE
Fort Niagara ousie harines George Fort Lewiston YORK NEW
submersible diving saucer, Soucoup, which collided with Hamilton’s figurehead causing minor damage. Other damage during subsequent expeditions has also been documented. And I mention these incidents not to be critical but simply to make the point that despite the best of intentions “stuff” happens. The only way to avoid such incidents is to not visit the wrecks and if that’s the plan then surely we must ask why we would bother to protect them at all?
What Price Protection? I have no doubt that the City of Hamilton at the outset had every intention of living up to the conditions of ownership of Hamilton and Scourge as set forth by the U.S. Navy. The city planned to raise both wrecks, recover the artifacts, conserve and display all in a new museum planned for the city’s waterfront. But the project budget estimates were unrealistic. As a former commercial diver I knew the city had grossly underestimated the cost or raising these two fragile shipwrecks from a depth of 300 feet
(92m). The most recent estimate that I’ve seen was for $20 million plus $2 million annually for conservation. The Confederate submarine Hunley was raised from only 27 feet (8m) off the coast of South Carolina in 2000 at a cost of $20 million. She was 37 feet (11m) long, 4 feet (1.2m) in diameter, and weighed 7.5 tons. Hamilton likely weighs 80 tons without guns, Scourge about 50 tons, and these estimates don’t consider their internal silt loads. So they weigh nearly 10 times more and are located in water ten times as deep. Much can be learned also from the salvage and restoration projects of the 1628 Swedish warship Vasa, raised from 105 feet (32m) in 1961, and the 1545 British warship Mary Rose, raised from 40 feet (12m) in 1982. The Vasa was put in a purpose built museum
Below: Scott Stitt set to descend on one of the wreck sites
Hamilton’s figurehead recalls
the ship’s former name - Diana. The schooner was acquired by the U.S. Navy in the fall of 1812
where it underwent conservation that continues to this day. To prevent wood shrinkage and decay the vessel was continuously sprayed with polyethylene glycol for 17 years and then slowly dried over the course of nine years. Despite this effort the Vasa continues to decay. Preservation efforts are ongoing. Similarly, the Mary Rose is just now coming to the end of a 40-year conservation effort facing comparable problems.
The City of Hamilton has itself most likely concluded salvage of Hamilton and/or Scourge is unrealistic for many reasons. I no longer believe that the technical complications of raising the wrecks can be overcome at any price. In fact I’ll go so far as to say that Hamilton and Scourge will never be raised. Margaret Rule and Peter Englebert, archaeologists associated with the Hamilton and Scourge Project agree.
Exact location of the wrecks has been a closely guarded secret. The City of Hamilton and the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport (MTCS) refused permission to
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