About two hundred years ago, the United States and Great Britain, as well as Canada, were still entangled in the Second War of Independence. A sudden storm hit Lake Ontario, directly causing the U.S. Navy fleet to sink two warships in The Port of Sasukets. The two warships were the HAMilton and the Scourge.
Although the surrounding ships rescued 16 crew members, at least 53 people were killed when the ship sank. The two heavily armed schooners now lie nearly intact at a depth of 90 metres, about 460 metres apart from each other.
Two shipwrecks were discovered in 1973. Jonathan Moore, a senior underwater archaeologist at Parks Canada, called it the best-preserved shipwreck of its kind. The two ships were originally built as merchant ships and later converted into battleships.
The figure adorning the bow of the Hamilton is Diana, the goddess of the hunt in Roman mythology, which was originally named after Diana. The Hamilton, 20 meters long, was built in 1809, before the war began, and was owned by New York merchant Matthew McNair. After the war began, U.S. Navy Commodore Isaac Chauncey bought the ship to replenish the Lake Ontario fleet and named it after Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton.
Quagga mussels are invasive species that live in Lake Ontario. As you can see from this image of Diana, the bow of the 2008 Hamilton, striped mussels have taken over the shipwreck across the board.
In 1982, during an expedition funded by the National Geographic Society, researchers photographed and explored two shipwrecks with a remotely controlled submersible. The depth of the water in which the ship was wrecked was about 91 meters. Amateur archaeologist and local dentist Daniel M. A. Nelson speculated about the location of the wrecks based on the logbooks of another ship, and discovered the two ships in 1973. Currently, the two shipwrecks belong to the city of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and are listed as National Historic Sites of Canada.
Although it has been 170 years since the shipwreck, the imprint of the 1812 war can be clearly seen in this picture of the battleship USS Hamilton, which was taken in 1982. On the left is a close-range mortar gun, a cast-iron short-range gun that was cast on armed ships. In the lower right of the figure, there is a gunpowder scoop placed on the deck.
Over the past two decades, striped mussels have become a seriously endangered invasive species in the Great Lakes region. The 200-year-old shipwreck of the Hamilton is now covered in striped mussels, and the close-range mortar gun has been completely disfigured.
In this 1982 image, the sliding glass windows on the Scourge battleship are still well preserved after 170 years. Nancy Binnie, a scientist at the Canadian Conservation Institute, said Lake Ontario's cold, pure and ill-lit waters could provide long-term "ideal environmental conditions" for the preservation of the two shipwrecks, but now striped mussels have covered much of the wreck's surface.
In recent years, the damage caused by striped mussels to shipwrecks has become increasingly serious. The window on disaster was relatively intact in 1982, but it collapsed in 2008.
A hone gun with a muzzle facing down on the deck of the HAMILTON. The image was taken in 1982, and although the surface of the gun had corroded, Nancy Binney, a scientist at the Canadian Conservation Institute, believed that the earliest casting marks may still be on the barrel.
Hamilton and Disaster were the best-preserved shipwrecks of the 1812 war, but in recent years they have encountered an enemy that is both small and powerful: invading striped mussels. By 2008, the striped mussels had completely covered the shaft gun aboard the USS Hamilton. Underwater archaeologists from Parks Canada, in collaboration with the City of Hamilton, Ontario, and other agencies, recently completed a survey of these historic sites in an attempt to guide conservation efforts.
Because the hull is basically intact, it is likely that many artifacts will be preserved inside the shipwreck, and the remains of the crew trapped in the hull during the wreck may even be preserved in the ship. Future research may also reveal many details about the lives of the crew. Still, Nancy Binney said, "We need to maintain respect for these sites because they are graveyards for war." ”