A photo of a shipwreck believed to be the "Lake Serpent" courtesy of the National Museum of the Great Lakes.A photo of a shipwreck believed to be the "Lake Serpent" courtesy of the National Museum of the Great Lakes.
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Could This Be The Oldest Shipwreck Yet Found In Lake Erie?

Toledo's National Museum of the Great Lakes hopes to confirm if a sunken schooner found in Lake Erie is the Lake Serpent.

The Lake Serpent, a two-masted schooner built in 1821, was used to ship cargo around Lake Erie before it sunk in 1829. It carried a crew of at least four. Two survived the sinking and washed up on the shore of Lorraine County, Ohio.

A photo of a two-mast schooner similar to the Lake Serpent. Photo courtesy of the National Museum of the Great Lakes. A photo of a two-mast schooner similar to the Lake Serpent. Photo courtesy of the National Museum of the Great Lakes.

The museum's Director of Archeology Carrie Sowden says the wreckage was found by accident.

"The guys who were out kind of doing the work weren't looking for this. They were looking for some other shipwrecks and came across this, for lack of a better word, a small dot on a side-scan sonar," says Sowden. "They thought that is too small to be a shipwreck, but decided to go back and take another look at it and decided that it was."

Not much is known about the Lake Serpent, or about shipping during the early 19th century, so Sowden says the finding could be significant.

"There's not a lot [of shipwrecks] from that period that have been found," she explains.

Divers are expected to go back in the water this July to hopefully confirm the wreckage's identity, but since underwater expeditions can be costly, there are no plans to recover it. The wreck will remain in the water.

The museum has launched a crowdfunding campaign to support the dive this summer.

For now, the museum is keeping the location of the ship a secret. Sowden says later this summer; it hopes to confirm if it is the Lake Serpent.

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