Legacy Notes & Full Historical Record

This section preserves the original unedited Shotline content for this wreck so that no historical detail is lost as we transition to the new logbook format.

The Hamilton (formerly Diana): Ownership, Service, and Legacy

IDENTIFICATION & SITE INFORMATION

• Vessel Name: Hamilton (originally Diana)
• Former Names: Diana
• Registration Number: N/A (pre-registration era)
• Date Built and Launched: 1809
• Place Built: Oswego, New York, USA
• Builder: Henry Eagle and H.D. Hugunin
• Original Owner: Matthew McNair, merchant, Oswego
• Type of Vessel: Two-masted schooner
• Construction Materials: Wood
• Dimensions (estimated):
  • Length: ~20.4 m (67 ft)
  • Beam: ~5.2 m (17 ft)
  • Tonnage: ~76 tons (old measurement system)
• Propulsion: Sail (fore-and-aft rigged schooner)
• Armament (as warship): 9–10 cannon (mix of carronades and long gun)
• Crew Complement (at loss): approx. 40–45
• Wreck Location: Lake Ontario, off Port Dalhousie, Ontario
• Coordinates (approximate): 43°13′30″ N, 79°16′00″ W
• Depth of Wreck: 90 metres (300 ft)
• Final Date of Loss: 8 August 1813
• How Lost: Capsized in sudden line squall
• Casualties: ~42 lives lost
• Present Condition: Upright, remarkably intact, preserved in cold, deep water
• Legal Status: Canadian National Historic Site, protected war grave

VESSEL TYPE DESCRIPTION

The Hamilton began her life as the Diana, a private merchant schooner built for the bustling cross-lake trade of the early 1800s. Her shallow-draft, two-masted design was ideal for carrying cargos of flour, lumber, salt, and other commodities between the port of Oswego and points in Upper Canada. Converted hastily for war service in 1812, she was retrofitted with naval guns and crewed by U.S. Navy sailors as part of Commodore Chauncey’s squadron on Lake Ontario. Like many civilian vessels pressed into military duty, she retained a high centre of gravity, making her vulnerable in foul weather when heavily armed.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND OWNERSHIP

• Matthew McNair (Oswego merchant): Commissioned Diana in 1809 to serve the lucrative grain, timber, and potash trade on Lake Ontario.
• U.S. Navy Acquisition: Purchased October 1812 for naval operations during the War of 1812; renamed Hamilton in honour of Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton.
• Conversion: Retrofitted with nine or ten naval guns; operated from Sackets Harbor, NY.
• Command: Lieutenant Walter Winter was in charge at the time of loss.

During the War of 1812, the Hamilton took part in patrols, convoy protection, and supported amphibious assaults such as Fort George in 1813.

FINAL DISPOSITION

On 8 August 1813, while at anchor off Fourteen Mile Creek with the American squadron, Hamilton and the schooner Scourge were struck by a fierce line squall before dawn. Top-heavy from their wartime armament and poorly ballasted, both ships capsized and sank within minutes. Approximately 42 men aboard Hamilton perished, with only a handful surviving.

The wreck was rediscovered in 1973 by sonar survey teams. Subsequent ROV expeditions confirmed the schooner lies upright in deep water, astonishingly preserved with guns still on deck, a time capsule to the war’s tragic costs.

PRESENT SITE CONDITION

• Depth: 90 m (300 ft)
• Position: Upright on lakebed, masts and spars intact
• Features observed: Cannon, personal effects, ship’s wheel, figurehead
• Threats: Invasive quagga mussels, structural decay over time
• Legal Protections: Canadian National Historic Site (since 1976), war grave, no diving allowed
• Monitoring Tools: ROV, side-scan sonar, high-resolution photogrammetry

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

The Hamilton, along with Scourge, stands among the few War of 1812 shipwrecks that remain intact and undisturbed, bearing witness to the dual hazards of battle and weather on the Great Lakes. These wrecks are vital to understanding:

• Early 19th-century naval adaptations
• Shipboard life and the chaotic logistics of converting merchantmen into warships
• The rapid technological shifts of Great Lakes naval warfare

Original Ownership and Merchant Beginnings

They also serve as a solemn reminder of the men who went to their graves below, honouring their service and sacrifice in conditions far deadlier than a ship’s cannon: the raw power of nature.

The schooner Hamilton began its life as Diana, a merchant vessel built in 1809 at Oswego, New York. She was commissioned by Matthew McNair, a prominent Oswego merchant, to capitalize on the thriving trade across Lake Ontario. At the time, Oswego was a critical port connecting U.S. producers with markets in Upper Canada. Commodities such as timber, agricultural produce, potash, and the valuable Onondaga salt were routinely shipped from Oswego to Canadian ports. In fact, by 1810 nearly half of all sailing ships on Lake Ontario were registered in Oswego, underscoring the port’s booming commerce. Diana (rated about 76 tons burthen) was built by local shipwright Henry Eagle (with H.D. Hugunin as a partner) for McNair’s trading enterprise. For several years before the War of 1812, the schooner crisscrossed the lake carrying goods like salt, flour, and lumber, contributing to the region’s brisk U.S.–Canada trade in the pre-war era.

U.S. Navy Acquisition in 1812

With the outbreak of the War of 1812, the United States Navy moved swiftly to strengthen its presence on the Great Lakes. On October 21, 1812, the Navy purchased the Diana from McNair for military service. The vessel was moved to the navy yard at Sackets Harbor, NY – America’s primary Lake Ontario base – and was officially renamed “USS Hamilton” on November 5, 1812, in honor of Paul Hamilton, then U.S. Secretary of the Navy. This transition from commerce to combat service exemplified how private vessels were repurposed to meet wartime demands. The Hamilton underwent conversions to serve as a warship, being refitted with a battery of naval guns (approximately nine to ten cannons including several carronades and a long gun). These modifications effectively transformed the modest schooner into an armed vessel – albeit not without issues. Her decks had not been built to support heavy cannon, and the bulwarks (the sides of the ship above deck) were low, offering minimal protection to gun crews. Despite these shortcomings, the Navy pressed Hamilton into service under experienced officers, integrating her into Commodore Isaac Chauncey’s growing American squadron on Lake Ontario. The partnership between private shipbuilders and the Navy – for example, Henry Eagle’s role in constructing Diana and Chauncey’s swift acquisition of her – highlights the collaboration required to rapidly assemble a fleet in the face of war.

Service in the War of 1812

Once commissioned, USS Hamilton joined the U.S. Lake Ontario squadron based at Sackets Harbor and played an active role in the naval campaign against British forces. Along with other converted schooners and purpose-built warships, the Hamilton patrolled strategic waterways and helped assert American control over Lake Ontario. In the spring of 1813, she and her sister ships provided support for amphibious operations – notably aiding the American assault on Fort George (Niagara) in May 1813. During that battle, the American fleet bombarded the British positions and facilitated the landing of U.S. troops, with Hamilton and another schooner (Scourge, originally the Canadian merchant Lord Nelson) each playing a role in the victory. (Similarly, the squadron had earlier conducted a successful raid on York in April 1813, though Hamilton’s specific involvement at York is less documented than at Fort George.) Through the summer of 1813, Hamilton’s duties included patrolling the lake, intercepting British supply convoys, and moving Army supplies – all part of the struggle to dominate the Great Lakes, which were crucial supply lines in lieu of roads.

By mid-August 1813, Commodore Chauncey’s squadron, including Hamilton, was stationed off Fourteen Mile Creek, near Port Dalhousie (present-day St. Catharines, Ontario), poised for another operation against the British. It was here that Hamilton met her tragic fate. In the pre-dawn hours of August 8, 1813, as the ships lay at anchor awaiting orders, a sudden line squall – a fierce, fast-moving storm – struck Lake Ontario. The Hamilton, along with USS Scourge, was caught off guard by the violent gusts. Both small schooners were top-heavy from their added armaments and supplies; their peacetime design had a relatively high center of gravity which, combined with the weight of cannon, made them unstable in heavy weather. When the squall hit, the two vessels heeled over perilously. Within minutes, both Hamilton and Scourge capsized and sank, disappearing into the darkness with almost all hands.

The sinking of Hamilton and Scourge was one of the deadliest naval disasters of the war in the Great Lakes. Of the roughly 72 men between the two crews, fewer than a quarter survived – contemporary reports indicate only 16 sailors were rescued from the storm-tossed waters (about 8 from Hamilton and 8 from Scourge). Lieutenant Walter Winter, Hamilton’s commander, went down with his ship. In all, around 42 lives were lost on Hamilton alone, and the combined death toll of over 50 men stands as the single greatest loss of life on the Great Lakes during the War of 1812. The sudden destruction of these two schooners – without a shot fired – underscored how the forces of nature could be as lethal as enemy gunfire. The disaster was later recounted by Ned Myers, a sailor who survived the Scourge, in a memoir told to author James Fenimore Cooper. Myers’ harrowing tale described how quickly the squall overtook the fleet and the desperate struggle of those few who managed to cling to floating wreckage until rescue.

Legacy as Underwater Time Capsules and War Graves

The submerged wrecks of Hamilton and Scourge have remained astonishingly well-preserved in the cold, deep waters of Lake Ontario. This 1982 photograph (taken by a remotely operated vehicle) shows a schooner’s bow figurehead still attached – now encrusted with quagga mussels, yet eerily intact on the lakebed. Over 200 years later, the Hamilton rests upright, masts still standing, with artifacts like cannons, cutlasses, and even the carved wooden figureheads of “Diana” and “Lord Nelson” visible on deck. The nearly freezing temperatures and low oxygen at 90 meters (300 feet) depth have slowed decay, making these wrecks unique archaeological time capsules of the War of 1812 era. Recognizing their significance, the site of the two ships was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1976, and today they are protected as war graves under Canadian law. The Ontario Heritage Act was even amended in 2005 to specifically safeguard Hamilton and Scourge, due to the presence of human remains and their historical importance. No dive tourism is permitted; out of respect for the lost sailors, the wrecks are treated as hallowed ground, to remain undisturbed on the lake bottom. Modern explorers instead have studied them remotely – using technology rather than direct dives – in order to preserve their condition.

Ownership and Preservation: Although the wrecks originally sank under U.S. Navy ownership, custody was later transferred to Canada. In 1978, the United States Congress formally relinquished title of the sunken Hamilton and Scourge to the City of Hamilton, Ontario. Since 1980, the City of Hamilton has been the steward of the site, working in partnership with Parks Canada and other agencies to balance research with conservation. Early proposals considered raising one or both ships for display, but ultimately a long-term in situ preservation strategy was adopted. This approach reflects evolving best practices in underwater cultural resource management – leaving the ships in place, since removing them could cause irreversible damage. Over the decades, cutting-edge technologies have been deployed to document and monitor the wrecks without physically disturbing them. In the 1970s, side-scan sonar was used to locate the vessels on the lakebed. In 1980, even famed ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau’s team visited, filming the wrecks with a small submersible. A major joint expedition in 1982 (sponsored by National Geographic and the City of Hamilton) sent down a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that captured hundreds of high-quality photographs and hours of video footage, revealing extraordinary details of the ships as if “frozen in time”. These images showed Hamilton and Scourge lying 1,500 feet apart on the lake floor, both upright with masts still in place, guns loaded, and even piles of cannonballs on deck. Marine archaeologists produced site maps and drawings from this data, and many of the artifacts visible (e.g. muskets, tools, personal items) remain on the wrecks, protected by 90 meters of water.

In recent years, new challenges have emerged. Invasive quagga mussels (relatives of zebra mussels) have colonized the wrecks since the 2000s, covering hull timbers and obscuring features under a crust of shell growth. Additionally, advances in technical scuba diving raised concerns that illegal dive attempts could damage the site. In response, the City of Hamilton and Parks Canada launched a comprehensive monitoring project (2007–2009) to assess the wrecks’ condition. Utilizing ROVs equipped with high-definition video, 3D sonar scanners, and even magnetometers, researchers conducted around-the-clock surveys – all without directly touching the ships. The data from these surveys have been invaluable in tracking changes to the wrecks’ integrity. The good news is that despite over two centuries underwater (and some inevitable natural decay), Hamilton and Scourge remain structurally sound and remarkably intact. The site continues to yield insights into early 19th-century shipbuilding, naval warfare, and shipboard life. For example, the Hamilton’s armament (a pivot-mounted “Long Tom” cannon and several carronades) can still be observed in situ, offering a direct glimpse of how War of 1812 schooners were armed. Because of this preservation, historians have noted that these two vessels are among the only fully intact War of 1812 shipwrecks in the world.

Conclusion: From Private Schooner to Naval Legacy

The saga of the Hamilton — from private merchant schooner Diana, to U.S. Navy warship, to her final resting place on the lakebed — illustrates the dynamic shifts in a ship’s role and meaning over time. In war, necessity blurred the line between civilian and military assets: a trading vessel built by entrepreneurs like Matthew McNair and Henry Eagle could swiftly become a warship crewed by Navy sailors. This public-private collaboration was crucial for the young United States to meet the demands of naval warfare in 1812. And though Hamilton’s active life was cut short by disaster, her legacy endures. Today, the wreck of the Hamilton (and Scourge) is not only a war grave and memorial to the sailors who perished, but also a priceless archaeological treasure. Ongoing binational preservation efforts ensure that this underwater time capsule will be studied with care and respect for its historical and human story. For those interested in exploring this story further, the City of Hamilton’s official website hosts a wealth of information on the Hamilton & Scourge National Historic Site, and documentary projects (such as the Dive Detectives episode “Warships Down” on YouTube) have brought these “ghost schooners” to a wider audience. The loss of the Hamilton in 1813 remains a poignant reminder of how even in an age of cannon fire and battle, the most perilous enemy a sailor faced might well be the unforgiving fury of nature on the Great Lakes.

REFERENCES & LINKS

• Hamilton & Scourge National Historic Site, City of Hamilton
• Parks Canada War of 1812 Sites
• National Geographic Archive on Hamilton & Scourge
• Naval History and Heritage Command
• Maritime History of the Great Lakes
• Great Lakes Ships – Bowling Green State University Collection
• Hamilton & Scourge Project – City of Hamilton
• Canadian Encyclopedia War of 1812
• YouTube Dive Detectives — Warships Down
• Hamilton & Scourge Underwater Photogrammetry (Flickr album)

VIDEOS & PHOTO GALLERIES

• Hamilton and Scourge 3D Survey (YouTube)
• Jacques Cousteau’s Hamilton & Scourge Footage (Rare Archival)
• National Geographic 1982 Expedition Highlights
• City of Hamilton Official Video Archive

ODD CONNECTION OF THE DAY

It is oddly fitting — if rather macabre — that a ship once named Diana, after the Roman goddess of the hunt, ended her days not in triumph but still “hunting” in a way, forever chasing the ghosts of her own men through the cold deep. Like a war goddess frozen in time, she reminds us that nature always has the final word, even for the gods of war.

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