Wreck could be of crucial ship from USA/Canada War of 1812

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Wreck could be of crucial ship from USA/Canada War of 1812

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Opinion

Barry Artiste, Now Public Contributor

A shipwreck the HMS Wolfe may have been discovered with intact artifacts in the cold waters of Lake Ontario.

The Great Lakes, unlike oceans do not have salt water and creatures which destroy ships, will be preserved by the cold water giving historians a clue of ships of long ago.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=743197

Wreck could be of crucial ship from War of 1812

Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service

Published: Friday, August 22, 2008

(Photo Inset) Deepquest2ExpeditionsUnder water wreckage of several War of 1812 British warships in Lake Ontario.

A Lake Ontario shipwreck hunter claims to have discovered a legendary vessel from the War of 1812 -- the 32-metre sloop HMS Wolfe, the star of one of the most dramatic naval battles on the Great Lakes at the height of the U.S. invasion of Canada.

The ship, renamed HMS Montreal later in the war, was the Canadian-made flagship of commodore James Yeo, commander of the inland British fleet during the crucial struggle against the Americans for control of the lakes.

In a famous 1813 engagement known as the Burlington Races, a damaged Wolfe was under intense fire near present-day Toronto, but just managed to escape the enemy assault by retreating rapidly westward to a gun-protected shore near Burlington Bay.

A defeat in that battle -- which came just days after a major U.S. victory on Lake Erie -- could have given the Americans free rein in the lower lakes and, according to a leading War of 1812 naval historian, made certain Ontario became "a state of the American union."