PRESCOTT, Ont. -- Provincial police say an Ottawa-area man has died following an incident at the dive site of a 19th-century wooden ship in the St. Lawrence River, west of Prescott.

Grenville County O-P-P and local paramedics responded to a report of a diver in distress at the Rothesay Dive Wreck on Thursday evening.

A 59-year-old man from Nepean was scuba diving with a group at the site, but observers saw he was in trouble as the others were leaving the water.

Other divers brought him to shore, where he was taken to hospital and pronounced dead.

A post-mortem has been scheduled, and the investigation is continuing, with the assistance of the OPP Underwater Search and Recovery Unit.

The Rothesay was launched in Saint John, N.B., in 1868 and sank after it collided with a tugboat in September 1889. (CJOJ)