Q&A with a member of the team who discovered a shipwreck in Lake Ontario

CTV News Channel: Shipwreck found in Lake Ontario Shipwreck explorer Jim Kennard says his team had been systematically searching in the area and is pleased the ship is still there intact.

A team of American divers announced Wednesday the discovery of a 200-year-old shipwreck in the cold, murky depths of Lake Ontario.

CTV News Channel chatted with team member Jim Kennard about the historic find.

Q : How did you find this wreckage and how did you know where to look?

A : W e don’t stumble across these things. You know, Lake Ontario is too big to just be out there searching randomly. So, we’ve been systematically searching various parts of the lake off the southern shore of Lake Ontario.

Q: In terms of its condition -- the fact that it’s 200 years old -- were you pleased with the state that it’s in when you found it?

A: You never know what you’re going to find when you find a shipwreck like this, because some of them really get damaged very much so in a storm … But it’s pretty much all there. The mast is still standing. It did go down stern-first, so the back end is busted up somewhat. But, you know, in the depth that it’s in, the water temperature is probably 39 degrees [Fahrenheit] and the oxygen content is low, so the wood really decays very, very slowly. The only problem, of course, is the invasive species of the quagga mussels that sort of all over any of the wrecks in the lake.

Q: How deep are we talking?

A: We can’t really disclose the depth or even the distance from shore. These are little mini museums and we like to keep them confidential so that they will stay preserved … It only takes one to say, ‘Oh, I want that mast, I want that wheel,’ or something else. So, we do try our best to keep these locations confidential