OSWEGO, N.Y. — Shipwreck explorers funded in part by the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo have discovered a rare shallow-draft sailing vessel that sank in 1872 in deep water off the New York shore of Lake Ontario.

The scow-sloop Black Duck, which was sailing from Oswego to Sackets Harbor, N.Y., when it sank in a gale, “may be the only fully intact scow-sloop to exist in the Great Lakes,” according to a statement issued Friday by the museum.

Its wreckage 350 feet down had originally been found by shipwreck hunters Jim Kennard and Roger Pawlowski in May, 2013, but their efforts to identify it two months later using a remotely operated vehicle were compromised by the effects of deep water. They returned to the site two months ago with an improved search vehicle and tethering system and successfully surveyed the sunken vessel.

The museum said that after that successful survey, Mr. Kennard and Mr. Pawlowski learned that another exploration team had found the vessel the same summer they did, but also had been unable to identify it.

With a draft of just four feet and carrying capacity of 21 tons, scow-sloops like the Black Duck were designed for travel in protected waters, but not for the high winds and waves of the open lakes during a storm. They typically were used to transfer cargo from deepwater ports to nearby harbors that had shallow channels, and with flat bottoms could easily be run up onto a beach if necessary for unloading, according to the museum.

While the Black Duck’s captain, Barney Everleigh, believed he could make the 40-mile trip from Oswego to Sackets Harbor with a cargo of coal and general merchandise ahead of a rising storm, the scow-sloop ended up caught in a gale and its captain, his wife, and a single crew member ended up drifting in a lifeboat after their vessel sprang a severe leak and sank. The lifeboat washed ashore near Pulaski, N.Y., about two hours after the sinking.

Scow-sloops are first known to have appeared in the Great Lakes system around 1830, and mostly were used in eastern Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, but they were always rare, according to the museum.

“Finding boats that were atypical on the Great Lakes helps us to more fully appreciate the ingenuity and entrepreneurship of our forefathers and better understand the complexity of Great Lakes history,” said Christopher Gillcrist, the museum’s executive director.

The Black Duck had been built on the St. Lawrence River’s Wellesley Island in 1859, and Mr. Everleigh and John Jackson, two Sackets Harbor merchants, bought it in 1870. 

Such vessels are first known to have been used in Great Lakes-area waters during the 1830s, with most found near eastern Lake Ontario or the St. Lawrence, the museum said.

As with other such shipwrecks, the Black Duck will not be moved. The museum noted New York law declaring historic shipwrecks to be public property, with unauthorized disturbance forbidden.

Contact David Patch at: dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.

First Published November 26, 2016, 7:27 a.m.