Mysterious Shipwreck Discovered in ‘Pristine’ Condition in Lake Ontario—With Its Masts Still Standing

Divers found the well-preserved vessel while searching for a different wreck called the “Rapid City,” which sank near Toronto in 1917

Sarah Kuta | Daily Correspondent

December 19, 2025

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Divers have discovered a mysterious shipwreck at the bottom of Lake Ontario that’s so well-preserved its masts are still standing.

The unidentified vessel was found near Toronto in August by a Canadian dive team led by Heison Chak, president of the Ontario Underwater Council. The group was searching for the Rapid City, a two-masted schooner that was built in 1884 and sank near Toronto in 1917.

Instead, they found what they think is a different ship altogether, one that appears to be much older than the Rapid City. The vessel is located 300 feet below the water’s surface, which is likely why it’s in such good shape.

The structure is covered in invasive quagga mussels, but other than that, it’s “pristine” and “all in one piece,” Chak tells CBC News’ Colin Butler. When they found it, the divers needed a “few moments to calm ourselves down,” he says, adding that the “joy was just overwhelming.”

“It’s got its shape,” Chak adds. “It hasn’t broken down both masts. We saw two—both masts were standing, which is pretty rare.”

Most of the time, he says, shipwreck masts have been damaged or destroyed by boat anchors or divers.

For now, the ship’s identity remains unknown. But the divers spotted a few clues that might hint at its age. For example, the ship appears to have had rope rigging, “because rope decays over time,” Chak tells Cottage Life’s Teagan Sliz.

“Cable rigging, which takes longer to decay, didn’t come into the picture until after 1850,” he adds.

The vessel also appears to have an early version of a windlass, a piece of equipment typically used for raising and lowering a ship’s anchor. It’s also missing a centerboard winch, as well as a wheel on the aft deck—more unusual features that suggest it might date to the early 1800s.

The divers will need to conduct more research to definitively confirm the vessel’s age. In the future, they hope to return to the wreck to collect wood samples for tree-ring analyses and measure its dimensions to calculate its tonnage. Then, they might be able to cross-reference this information with historic shipping logs.

“Tonnage will tell us what boat this might be, or rather, what boat this may not be,” Chak tells Cottage Life.

Right now, however, they have “no clue” of the vessel’s identity, he adds. “That’s what makes it so exciting.”

If the wreck does turn out to be from the early 19th century, it could offer fresh insights into Great Lakes shipbuilding during that era. Though trade was booming during that time, particularly between the United States and Canada, historians haven’t found extensive records related to shipbuilding specifically.

More than 6,000 commercial vessels have sunk in the Great Lakes, causing an estimated 30,000 deaths. (One of the most famous is the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank 50 years ago in 1975.)

However, very few are as intact as the newly discovered Lake Ontario wreck, which makes the site “intriguing,” Charles Beeker, a maritime archaeologist at Indiana University who was not involved with the project, tells CBC News. However, he notes that it would be unusual to locate a vessel built before the Civil War.

“I don’t want to diminish the value of it,” he adds. “They may be able to identify the vessel, maybe identify the shipyard, and that would be useful to look at an actual intact vessel on the bottom to compare to what little we do have in terms of drawings, and tonnage and information from these vessels, and the older you go, the less information we have.”

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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.