Underwater archeologists, U.S. Navy experts and historians took steps yesterday toward mounting a new expedition to the sunken War of 1812 warships, USS Hamilton and USS Scourge.
But the ships' owner, the City of Hamilton, was also criticized for not fulfilling a 25-year promise to study and preserve the ships which lie in 90 metres of frigid water 10 kilometres north of Port Dalhousie.
"There are questions about whether the City of Hamilton should have these ships," said Elaine Wyatt, president of the 200-member group Save Ontario Shipwrecks. "We have to wonder if they have the political will" to care for the site.
After receiving the ships from the U.S. Navy, the Royal Ontario Museum transferred their formal title in 1979 to Hamilton, with a promise that the city study the shipwrecks and transfer the remains of the 53 dead sailors to the U.S.
Hamilton has spent several million dollars to study and protect the wooden sailing vessels but the city project's annual budget, about $100,000 in the 1980s, is now below $10,000. Source.
