Truth about Hamilton/Scourge finally out

[pearldive]

Last weekend was the annual NDA dive symposium in Welland. I think the highlight was the information given on the Hamilton/Scourge Lake Ontario War 1812 shipwrecks off Pt Dalhousie . It was finally revealed that unknown technical divers did visit the wrecks sometime in the past and left behind some poly tied off to the wreck AND STOLE a sword from above one of the fixed cannons. In my opinion, I think it is time that the diving community come forward and someone reveal who STOLE this item and have it returned to the Hamilton/Scourge society so it can be properly restored and displayed FOR ALL TO SEE !!
WE have heard many rumours since 2005 of certain divers who did this wreck and now might be the time to get this item (and any others) back.

 

[simcoediver]

It was probably some visiting american tech divers, there are a lot of them that still plunder wrecks and get whatever they can, this is common and still being done a lot especially on the North Atlantic wrecks.
So now they are coming up here to plunder our wrecks, look what they did to the Empress of Ireland.
Not much we can do about it.

 

[pearldive]

I doubt that it was any Americans as NY boats are not common in Pt Dalhousie and Pt Weller areas. And wasnt the biggest looter of all of the Empress a french diver fromQuebec??
I went to a seminar in Hamilton about 20 years ago and saw his video of all the items he removed from the wreck.

 

[converted]

the guys that did that dive have video and I hope they keep it secret. Parks Canada is sucking wind looking for that video they have lots of "secret" Wrecks in Lake Ontario and the surrounding area and don't offer them out.

One of the Parks guys even has friends in Kingston that has secret wrecks and won't reveal them and now they want help. To Hell with them I say. Nothing like a little bit of the're own medicine.

 

[pearldive]

That video you mentioned has been turned over to the Hamilton Scourge Society so they can compare the present day wreck to the 2001/2 wreck.
AS for "secret wreck" locations I have been chartering since 1991 and other than guys usually bragging about secret wrecks I haven't seen or confirmed any !

 

[Gilldiver]

This will continue to happen until the local people who are on the water are interested. One way that could happen is to open the wrecks to a permit diving system like is used on the USS Monitor. Once the local boats start making money from access to the wrecks, they will start keeping an eye on them as it is in their financial interest to keep the permit.

Expecting the government to “protect” the wrecks by banning all diving and then ignoring them, is an invitation to illegal diving which as it is illegal, is unregulated, un monitored, and it should be expected that items will go missing.

Just what has Parks Canada done since the 1980’s to monitor, preserve, and document the wrecks other then to make sure that no funds are spent?

 

[DT]

You got love those rebreather divers.

 

[Kevin R]

This isn't news, that video surfaced a few years ago.

This will continue to hapen until people start getting charged. The marine heritage laws are paper tigers at thier best and until funding and resources put in place to track down and recover stolen artifats they wil continue to go missing. And thats just not going to happen in Canada. The Blue Hair Society running Hamilton Scourge is the biggest preservation joke in the country. They exist purely to argue over how to do nothing with these priceless gems and wont be happy until the wrecks sink into the silt and are gone forever. Im convinced this society is funded by the local company thats allowed to send thier ROV's down there to beat up the site every few years.

Years ago as a newish diver I was hearing stories from the discoverers of several Kingston wrecks about all the artifacts on Katie Eckles, Frontenac etc, years before they were made public but when they were finally opened there was nothing to see but piles of lumber. There is nothing authorities can do about it and it will continue on both sides of the border.


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[Gilldiver]

All I can say is that my contacts in the Historical office of the US Navy have learned and will never transfer ownership like was done on these wrecks again.

 

[DT]

I remember walking aboard Calypso when Cousteau cruised by Toronto and filmed the Hamilton Scourge and than 15 years later Ballard for National Geographic and than just last year Mike Fletcher with Parks Canada used robotics to film the wreck. There is plenty of footage and documentation done and that SWORD is still on the deck.

DT