The H. Lee White Maritime Museum is pleased to present “Shipwrecks of Lake Ontario – A Journey of Discovery” by Jim Kennard as part of their History Lecture Series on Sunday, October 20th at 1:30pm. Join us as we welcome Lake Ontario’s most successful shipwreck hunter on a personal and historic exploration of some of the most important shipwrecks discovered in Lake Ontario by his team and shipwreck peers. Jim Kennard will take the audience on a nearly 50-year journey of Lake Ontario shipwreck discovery from the pages of his book. These discoveries include the two oldest shipwrecks discovered in the Great Lakes, the 1790 British warship HMS Ontario and the sloop Washington lost in 1803 and more with underwater images and video of these lost treasures. His groundbreaking book Lake Ontario Shipwrecks: A Journey of Discovery, published by the National Museum of the Great Lakes, will be available for purchase as part of the program.
Kennard has been diving and exploring the lakes of the northeast since 1970. He’s discovered more than 200 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, Lake Champlain, Finger Lakes, and in the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Utilizing his background as an electrical engineer, he built a side scan sonar system that located many of these shipwrecks. His discoveries have received worldwide media attention, and Jim and his team have appeared in numerous publications including National Geographic, Sea Technology, Inland Seas, Wreck Diving and several others. He’s appeared on the Discovery Channel, CBC, BBC, Fox News and in National Geographic’s Drain the Oceans series on the American Revolution.
In 2013, Kennard was selected as a Fellow member of The Explorers Club. In 2015, he received the Joyce S. Hayward Award for historic interpretation from the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History for documenting the stories of Great Lakes shipwreck discoveries on his website, shipwreckworld.com. In addition to searching for elusive shipwrecks, Jim is an avid hiker and amateur radio operator. He graduated from Clarkson University with a BS in electrical engineering in 1966. A native of Peekskill, he currently resides in Fairport, NY.
The H. Lee White Maritime Museum’s History Lecture Series is offered free of charge and is open to the public. The Maritime Museum and Treasure Chest Gift Shop are open daily, 1-5pm, on the West 1st St. Pier in Oswego’s Historic Maritime District. For more on this or other programs, contact the Museum at 315-342-0480.