by Steven J. Wamback

Created on: June 16, 2008   Last Updated: June 17, 2008

Whether or Not to Raise Sunken Ship Wrecks:
Where Ancestry and Genealogy Meet National History

Regarding the recent discovery of the wreck of the HMS Ontario, a British warship which sank during a gale in Lake Ontario in 1780 during the American Revolution and the question about whether or not to raise such ships, please let's consider the following:

This sunken vessel is already preserved in a Great Museum... called Lake Ontario.

Because of her cold and deep waters, Lake Ontario herself has proven to have done more to preserve this ship, and others, than millions of present and future dollars spent could do on land. The sailing vessels The Hamilton and The Scourge (explored & filmed by Jacques Cousteau) in Western Lake Ontario are also perfectly preserved after nearly 200 years with masts still standing!

The Niagara Frontier, Great Lakes Erie and Ontario, and the US-Canada border between Ontario and New York is my home and the home of my ancestors who fought and died for both country and for king in the early wars and in our ultimate war for Independence. The border skirmishes during the French and Indian War, The American Revolution, and the War of 1812 are not just history book stories but Family Histories.

When these horrible wars broke out here, our ancestors had to pick sides and fight, flee to safety in the lands where either loyalty to king or where freedom and independence matched their own way of thinking. Just as in today's wars, many families had to mourn the loss of loved ones and hopefully got to bury their own dead rather than never knowing for sure.

For many of us, these remains (both shipwrecks and burying grounds) are our personal Ancestry and our Genealogy. One Great Great Grand Uncle had his library in Ontario Canada burned while he was held prisoner by the Americans at Fort Niagara in New York State. Another was killed at Fort Erie. Others escaped from Quebec to New York for the cause of Liberty.

Their graves surround these Great Lakes and our homes. These graves like the graves of our Native North American brothers have occupied these very lands and these very waters for many hundreds of years. Like the USS Arizona at the bottom of Pearl Harbor, sunken ships are the graves of the brave men who sailed them and remain in place to honor their lives, their deaths, and their sacrifices.

Let us study, photograph, and document such historical finds thoroughly. They are the history of ALL of us. Let us preserve these treasures via the very best and most economical means possible. But please let us not destroy the graves of anyone's war heroes nor of our ancestors any more.

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