In the early 1800's, the primary ship on Lake Ontario was the schooner. Used mostly for merchant ships, the schooner was a fore and aft rigged (sails in line with the boat keel) and considered more maneuverable and quicker than the old square sail. This made the schooner preferable to get in and out of the ports along the lake as goods were coming into higher demand as the Industrial Revolution was starting to get underway. As the War of 1812 was imminent, many of these ships were converted to man of wars. The schooner made horrible warships though as their bulwarks were to low to provide cover for the gun crews and their decking was not heavy enough to support the armament. The extra weight on the deck from the cannons made the ships dangerously top heavy causing the ships to heel heavily and making them almost impossible to navigate in a strong wind. It was widely perceived among the sailors that these ships were floating coffins. The Lord Nelson and Diana were two such merchant schooners on Lake Ontario that were later converted to man of wars.
The Lord Nelson was named after the famous British Admiral, Horatio Nelson. The schooner was built for a Canadian merchant named James Crooks and launched on May 1, 1811. During a voyage between Prescott, Canada and Newark, Canada on June 9, 1812 the Lord Nelson was stopped and searched by the USS Onieda. It was accused of smuggling goods from America to Canada in violation of The Embargo Act of 1807. The schooner was illegally confiscated and taken to Sacketts Harbor. James Crooks immediately traveled to Sacketts Harbor to dispute the claims. The Lord Nelson was commissioned into the US Navy before Crooks could plead his case as the War of 1812 was looming. The ship was fitted with bulwarks, four 6 pounder cannons, and four 4 pounder cannons and renamed the USS Scourge and assigned to Captain Issac Chauncey's squadron.
The Diana was an American merchant schooner built in Oswego, NY for Matthew McNair in 1809. The ship was purchased by the US Navy on October 21, 1812. The ship was taken to Sacketts Harbor and fitted with raised bulwarks, eight 12 pound carronades, and a single swiveling 24 or 32 pound cannon mounted amidship. On November 5, 1812 the Diana was renamed USS Hamilton in honor of the US Secretary of the Navy, Paul Hamilton.
"It was a lovely evening, not a cloud was visible and the lake was smooth as looking glass." are the words of Ned Myers, one of the eight survivors of the USS Scourge. A little past midnight on August 8, 1813 Captain Chauncey's ships sat off the mouth of Forty Mile Creek. The night was so still that no sails were reduced for the night. As the sailors slept next to their cannons, a sudden Lake Ontario squall rushed in with thunder and lightning, crashing waves, and torrential rain. According to Myers, The Scourge heeled to the starboard side and was overcome with raging waves that overfilled it with water within minutes of the squall starting. Just 500 meters away the Hamilton was experiencing the same fate. It's estimated that 86 men perished with the ships. It was the most loss of life in a single incident during the War of 1812.
After the war, James Crooks still pursued the claim that Lord Nelson was illegally seized. In 1817 that Northern District Court of New York determined his claims to be true and was awarded $5000.00 compensation for the ship. The funds were never paid due to embezzlement by the court clerk at the time. Crooks' family persisted and in 1914, 101 years after the Scourge sank, the U.S. Government paid compensation plus 97 years of interest. A total of $23,644 was split between 25 of Crooks' descendents.
The two ships were discovered in 1973 under 290 feet of water 1500 feet from one another. Since then dives have been made to the vessels in an effort to evaluate their condition. The near freezing temperature and low light levels at this depth have perfectly preserved the ships. They sit on the clay sand floor of Lake Ontario completely upright with their masts still standing. At the time of discovery the ships still belonged to the US Navy but have since been transferred to the Canadian government who in turn transferred them to the City of Hamilton. The site was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1975 and the Ontario Heritage Act was amended in 2005 to provide special protection to the site because they still contain human remains.
This cache will begin at a historical marker inside Lakeside Beach State Park. Take a picture, make a mental note, paint a painting, do anything short of hacksawing it down and taking it with you to memorize this sign. Every leg along the way will give you partial coordinates with directions to figure out the rest of the coordinates by using the info from the historical marker and this cache page. (Thats right, its my sneaky way of getting you to *gasp* read the cache page.) Lakeside is a 774 acre slice of paradise on the shore of Lake Ontario with beautifully mowed trails waiting to be explored. (Although there may be some muddy spots after extended periods of rain.) There is fee to enter the park from 10am through 6pm during the summer months. The parking coordinates are for leg 2 through the final which will be approximately a mile hike. BRING BUG SPRAY. The mosquitoes are the size of teradactyls here. I urge you to please return every leg back to its hiding place just good as or better than it was found. After finding the final, I suggest continuing to the access road and then a walk back to the parking along the shoreline of Lake Ontario. (It's shorter too!)
A special thank you to Tom Roland for taking time to meet and permit this placement.
There is a scratcher for the FTF. Enjoy!