Andrew Casler

acasler@ithacajournal.com | @AndrewCasler

Mostly intact%2C mid-1800s canal boat was discovered in Cayuga Lake near Aurora in 2013

The boat%27s name and the date it sank remain a mystery

Boat was built between 1828 and 1850. It%27s at least 36 years older that The Statue of Liberty.

Beneath Cayuga Lake's churning waves, a boat's planks and woodwork are shrouded in a green-hue of sunlight reflected through 70 feet of water.

The boat is a mostly intact, mid-1800s canal boat discovered in 2013. The hull and deck are identifiable, albeit covered in algae and mussels. Ports leading to the vessel's cargo holds are still defined, a huge rudder remains attached and the bow is uncompromised.

The boat was built between 1828 and 1850, Erie Canal Museum Curator Dan Ward said, but the vessel's name and the date it sank are a mystery.

Assuming it was built in 1850, the canal boat is 15 years older than Cornell University, about 30 years older than The Statue of Liberty and 50 years older than the state Capitol Building in Albany.

If the boat sank before July 26, 1907, the doomed steamboat Frontenac would have motored past the wreckage before a fire broke out, sinking the largest steamboat to ever operate on Cayuga Lake and killing seven people aboard.

The canal boat rested undisturbed on Cayuga Lake's cold, dark bottom until Craig Bates, of Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Michael DeGroat, of Union Springs, found the shipwreck using a Hummingbird sonar scanner in September 2013.

The two recreational divers were working to chart Cayuga Lake's bottom and produce a guide for divers who wanted to visit wreck sites.

"We made the turn to come home, and right as we made the turn Craig saw something on the monitor," DeGroat said.

The 90-foot canal boat is located about a half mile offshore and two miles northwest of Aurora, DeGroat said.

DeGroat and Bates visited the vessel again this September after they contacted New York state and established the wreck as an archeological site. The wreck belongs to New York state, and the divers don't have salvage rights, DeGroat said.

DeGroat said diving off the shipwreck can feel eerie, and the site is accompanied by a sense of loss.

"It's exciting, you found a shipwreck, but it's really somebody's tragedy, and you feel that," DeGroat said. "You get a sense of that when you see the wreck — this is somebody's livelihood and their home possibly and their life may have been lost in this wreck."

During the September excursion, divers Craig and Blair Bates determined that the cargo holds are filled with coal.

Mysteries remain

Local archives may tell the boat's full story.

"We don't have any facts," Ward said. "I'm sure that there's no way we could figure out what (the boat's name is) by looking at the boat, we'd have to find some kind of account."

Knowing the cargo, and searching newspaper reports and insurance claim records could reveal the boat's name, and when and why it sank, Ward said.

The boat was likely loaded with coal in Ithaca, History Center in Tompkins County Curator Catherine Duffy said.

"I think it's pretty safe to say that the coal this particular barge was transporting was likely from Pennsylvania," Duffy said.

Railroads brought coal, lumber and other natural resources to Ithaca.

The materials were loaded onto canal boats, which steam engine ships towed up Cayuga Lake to the Seneca-Cayuga Canal. The canal boat would have been pulled by horses while it was traveling the canals, Ward added.

With Ithaca as the boat's likely port-of-call, The Ithaca Journal, which was founded as the Seneca Republic in 1815 and given its current name in 1823, may have reported on the lost canal boat.

"These are the kinds of things that people read about, and it was important to people," Ward said.

Likely sank in a storm

Judging by how intact the wreckage is, Ward thinks it is likely that waves overcame the boat as it was towed northward by steamboat on Cayuga Lake.

"I imagine a boat traveling heavy, with a bulk cargo like that, was more likely to be taken down in a storm," Ward said.

The boat doesn't appear to have been in a collision, or broken up, he added. And cold water 70 feet beneath Cayuga Lake's surface likely preserved the boat.

The boat's aft bulkhead appears to be blown out by the load of coal shifting as the boat sank, DeGroat said. That may have caused the boat's rear deck to collapse, he added.

The normal procedure was to cut lines from tow vessels during large storms, understanding that the steamboat was a more expensive ship than the wooden barges.

"That was pretty common in the Finger Lakes because the types of storms that occurred were sudden and sometimes pretty heavy storms," Ward said.

The steamboat captain would have attempted to rescue the canal boat's crew, Ward added.

"When these boats would cut line, the boat that's being towed might go down, but I think they made every attempt to save any human life involved in it," he said.

Canal connected economy

In the 19th Century, it was easiest to move goods from Ithaca by water and train.

Imagine early automobiles and wagons traveling steep Finger Lakes climbs and descending over shale embankments and creeks — narrow, slick winter passes and muddy, flooded dirt roads in the summer.

"People were traveling on Cayuga Lake before the canal-way actually opened, and once it had, then Ithaca became this hub of commerce," Duffy said.

The Seneca-Cayuga Canal opened in 1828, three years after the Erie Canal opened. Combined with expanding railroads, the Erie Canal system changed Tompkins County from a collection of quiet lake-side towns into a mass of booming centers of commerce and industry, according to The History Center.

"So much was changing at that time, in the country and the state were entering the industrial revolution, railroads are becoming more prevalent, everything seemed to be growing in all directions," Duffy said.

With its position as a trade hub, Ithaca kept up with the changing times, Duffy added.

"I think the various industries that existed here, Morse Chain, typewriter factories, all sorts of different industries, is indicative of Ithaca growing and expanding and keeping up with the technological advances," she said.

The canals connected upstate New York to the global economy, Ward added, and canal boats played a crucial role in that shift.

"We don't really have any of these boats, so this is a great way to study the way these boats were constructed, and if we can find some report on it... we can compare that to what is found on the bottom, and I think we'll be able to learn a lot about these vessels," Ward said.

Follow Andrew Casler on Twitter: @AndrewCasler

Learn about canal boat history

• The History Center in Tompkins County opened a free exhibit, "Captains, Commerce, and Community: The Impact of the Erie Canal on Tompkins County," in September.

The artifact-based exhibit explores the lasting effects of the Erie Canal on Tompkins County. The 12-month exhibit will explore a series of themes. Next up is "Boats and Their Builders," running from January to April and finally, "Travelers and Community Folk," which runs from May to August 2015.

The History Center and its research library, at 401 E. State St., are open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The museum does not charge admission but accepts donations.

The Erie Canal Museum

• The Erie Canal Museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at 318 Erie Boulevard East in Syracuse. The museum does not charge admission but accepts donations.