Remains of sunken schooner thought to be oldest shipwreck ever found in Lake Erie

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP)—Shipwreck hunters say the remains of a schooner discovered in Lake Erie in Ohio are likely from a sailing ship that went down nearly two centuries ago.

That would make the wreckage the oldest ever found in the lake.

Divers spent eight days looking at the wreck this summer to find whether it’s the Lake Serpent ship that sank in 1829.

The National Museum of the Great Lakes said Thursday that the wreckage’s size and its cargo point to it being the ship lost near Kelleys Island off the Ohio shoreline.

But the museum’s archaeology director is stopping short of saying it’s definitely that ship and says divers will take another look next year.

A hunter who first spotted the wreckage in 2015 says he’s pretty confident it’s the Lake Serpent.