Sorry for the formatting. It was fine when I posted it.

Corrected version:


"JimH" wrote in message
...

From:
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaind...0924057721.xml

British man-of-war, the HMS General Hunter, that was captured by
CommodoreOliver Hazard Perry's American fleet in the Battle of Lake Erie in
1813 mayhave been found buried and largely preserved under a sandy beach in
Canada.

The shipwreck lies on the shore of Lake Huron at Southampton,
Ontario,slightly tilted to its starboard side.

There is some damage to the port bow and severe shattering of timbers
aboutmidship along the hull.

Researchers have found hundreds of ceramic pieces from bowls and plates,clay
pipes, eating utensils, 36 buttons from U.S. and British militaryuniforms,
four cannon balls, a musket bayonet, gunflints and parts of whatappear to be
pistols. The artifacts, which were recovered last summer, areat the Canadian
Conservation Institute in Ottawa, where they are beingcleaned and preserved.

The ship was reburied last autumn to protect it. Researchers from
theconservation institute will continue working with artifacts over the
nextseveral months.

If the sunken vessel proves to be the General Hunter, it could be the
oldestshipwreck ever located on the Great Lakes.

Canadian researchers and officials said in interviews this week that theyare
99 percent certain the shipwreck was a fighting ship built in the age
ofsail.And the only currently known warship on Erie, Huron, Michigan and
Superiorthat closely matches the wreck's dimensions - about 70 feet long and
20 feetwide - was the two-masted brig that carried 45 sailors when it fought
thefledgling U.S. Navy for control of the Great Lakes."

We're not 100 percent sure, but the circumstantial evidence is
prettycompelling we've got the General Hunter. You Americans captured it in
1813,but we've probably got it back as a wreck," said Pat Folkes, a
Canadianmarine historian studying the ship.

"There are two or three other possibilities, but the construction of thehull
is for a naval, not a merchant, vessel. The timbers are verysubstantial,"
Folkes said. "And we've found a lot of military artifacts,including a
cannon."Some scholars on the U.S. side are using words like "priceless"
and"treasure" to describe the find.

When it sailed into combat on Lake Erie, the 180-ton square-riggerbrandished
eight cannons and was festooned with a huge flag and pennantssymbolizing the
might of the British Empire.