探险家在安大略湖发现200年前沉船

AS IT IS 2016-09-01 Explorers Find 200-Year-Old Sunken Ship in Lake Ontario 探险家在安大略湖发现200年前沉船

Explorers have found a ship that is over 200 years old at the bottom Lake Ontario.

This is the second-oldest, confirmed shipwreck¹ in the Great Lakes area between the U.S. and Canada, the explorers said.

The team of three underwater explorers that found the ship is from the western part of the U.S. state of New York. The wreck² was in the deep waters of Lake Ontario near the town of Oswego in central New York.

Team member Jim Kennard said that pictures taken using an unmanned vehicle identified the ship as the Washington. The Washington sank in 1803.

The Washington was built on Lake Erie in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania in 1798. The ship was used to transport people and goods between, New York, Pennsylvania and the Canadian province of Ontario. Canadian merchants then bought the ship, took it out of the water, and transported it by land to Lake Ontario in 1802.

The 16 meter-long ship was loaded with goods from India when it left Kingston, Ontario on November 6, 1803. It was sailing to Niagara, Ontario when it was caught in a fierce storm and sank.

At least three crew members and two merchants died when the ship sank. Kennard said that records showed some of the goods and pieces of the ship were found the next day on a shore near Oswego.

The Washington is the oldest commercial ship wreck found in the Great Lakes, he added. It was also the only ship known to have sailed on both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

"This one is very special," Kennard said. "We don’t get too many like this." Kennard and team members Roger Pawlowski and Roland ‘Chip’ Stevens have found several shipwrecks³ in Lake Ontario and other waterways.

Carrie Sowden is an official at the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo, Ohio. The museum helps pay for Kennard and his team to explore the area. Sowden said ships with only one mast⁴, called sloops⁵, were replaced by ships with two or three masts⁶, called schooners⁷, in the early 1800s. Schooners were much easier to sail.

There are no known drawings of the Washington, she added. This means the discovery will help historian⁸ of the seas learn more about the ships that sailed on the Great Lakes between the American Revolution and the War of 1812.

"Every shipwreck offers something different that adds to our knowledge base," Sowden said.

The oldest ship found in the Great Lakes is a British warship⁹ called the HMS Ontario. The HMS Ontario sank in Lake Ontario in 1780.

Kennard and another explorer found it in 2008.

Words in This Story

shipwreck – n. a ruined or destroyed ship

merchant(s) – n. someone who buys and sells goods especially in large amounts

commercial – adj. related to or used in the buying and selling of goods and services

mast – n. a long pole that supports the sails of a boat or ship

1 shipwreck   

n.船舶失事，海难

参考例句：

• He walked away from the shipwreck.他船难中平安地脱险了。
• The shipwreck was a harrowing experience.那次船难是一个惨痛的经历。

2 wreck   

n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难

参考例句：

• Weather may have been a factor in the wreck.天气可能是造成这次失事的原因之一。
• No one can wreck the friendship between us.没有人能够破坏我们之间的友谊。

3 shipwrecks   

海难，船只失事( shipwreck的名词复数 )； 沉船

参考例句：

• Shipwrecks are apropos of nothing. 船只失事总是来得出人意料。
• There are many shipwrecks in these waters. 在这些海域多海难事件。

4 mast   

n.船桅，桅杆，旗杆，天线杆

参考例句：

• Flags are flying at half-mast across China.全中国将半旗。
• The sails were flapping against the mast.帆拍打着桅杆。

5 sloops   

n.单桅纵帆船( sloop的名词复数 )

参考例句：

6 masts   

船桅( mast的名词复数 )； 桅杆； 旗杆； 天线塔

参考例句：

• Her masts leveled with the spires of churches. 船的桅杆和教堂的塔尖一样高。
• First the sails and then the masts went. 先是帆坏了，随后桅杆也断了。

7 schooners   

n.（有两个以上桅杆的）纵帆船( schooner的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You've already drunk three schooners of sherry. 你已经喝了三大杯雪利酒了。 来自辞典例句
• Might l beg the honour of pouring the privileged schooners myself? 请问我能不能自己倒尊贵的大杯酒？ 来自电影对白

8 historian   

n.历史学家，编史家

参考例句：

• As a historian,he was most typical of the times in which he lived.作为历史学家，他是他所处时代最有代表性的人物。
• He calls himself a historian,but his books are a mere journalism.他自称为历史学家，但是他的书都是些肤浅的通俗作品。

9 warship   

n.军舰，战舰

参考例句：

• He is serving on a warship in the Pacific.他在太平洋海域的一艘军舰上服役。
• The warship was making towards the pier.军舰正驶向码头。