Shipwreck hunters funded by the National Museum of the Great Lakes have discovered the ruins of a ship, believed to be the first ever commercial sailing vessel created on the Great Lakes, on the bottom of Lake Ontario.

While announcing the discovery on Wednesday, Christopher Gillcrist, the museum’s executive director, said that the Lady Washington’s discovery has dragged the boundary back for Great Lakes commercial shipwreck history. He said that the 18th century barrier breakdown doesn’t just hold significance psychologically, but the wreck could expose the ever examined earliest shipbuilding techniques on the Great Lakes.

This is the discovery of the oldest commercial vessel ever spotted on the Great Lakes. It is probably the second oldest vessel of any type still in shape, following a sunken British naval vessel discovered eight years back.

In 1803, the 53-foot sloop was on its way to Niagara, Ont. from Kingston, Ont., fully packed with cargo at the time of sink during a Lake Ontario gale. In June, its wreckage was discovered in deep water off Oswego, NY, but the identity of the vessel got confirmed in July, in accordance with the statement given by the museum, based in Toledo.

Everything present on the Lady Washington, with 36 tons cargo capacity, was lost a couple of years later when it sank. The sinking was testified when numerous cargo articles and parts of wreckage washed ashore in Oswego.

The search team made the discovery using side-scanning sonar, and then relied on a remotely operated vehicle to go down to the sunken remains to record and take dimensions of the Lady Washington.

The museum’s statement said, “Now, with imagery and measurements, there is a better understanding of the design of this very rare 18th-century sailing vessel. Sloops on the Great Lakes were soon replaced by schooners, which were much more efficient to operate”.

According to a report in Water Town Daily Times by Brian Kelly, "James W. Kennard, Roger Pawlowski and Roland Stevens located the rare 18th-century sloop Washington, also known as the Lady Washington, in deep water near here in June. The sloop, constructed near Erie, Pa., in 1798, was the first built on Lake Erie and the first to sail in both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. “The significance of this is that it is the oldest commercial sailing ship to exist on the Great Lakes and second-oldest shipwreck ever found on the Great Lakes,” Mr. Kennard said Wednesday."

In early November 1803, the Washington sailed from Niagara, Ontario, to Kingston, Ontario, with a small group of merchants aboard, according to documents Mr. Kennard researched at the Erie County Historical Society. On. Nov. 6, 1803, it left Kingston for its return trip, reportedly heavily loaded with general merchandise, including goods and groceries from East India.

The sloop encountered a fierce storm, but when other vessels arrived at Niagara and did not find the Washington, it was still assumed it had made it into port at Oswego. However, it was soon reported by other ships coming from the port that several articles of cargo, pieces of wreckage and the Washington’s yawl were found onshore near Oswego. No survivors were ever found. Mr. Kennard said he has seen unverified reports of 30 passengers aboard, but he has been unable to confirm that number and remains uncertain as to how many people died.

A report published in Freep informed, "The three-member western New York-based team said it discovered the shipwreck earlier this summer in deep water off Oswego, in central New York. Images captured by a remotely operated vehicle confirmed it is the Washington, which sank during a storm in 1803, team member Jim Kennard said."

The sloop Washington was built on Lake Erie in Pennsylvania in 1798 and was used to transport people and goods between western New York, Pennsylvania and Ontario. It was placed on skids and hauled by oxen teams across the Niagara Isthmus to Lake Ontario in 1802 after being sold to Canadian merchants.

The 53-foot-long ship was carrying at least five people and a cargo of merchandise, including goods from India, when it set sail from Kingston, Ontario, for its homeport of Niagara, Ontario, on Nov. 6, 1803. The vessel was caught in a fierce storm and sank.