An eight-year-old child in Ontario has managed to discover a nearly 200-year-old shipwreck by using nothing but a metal detector. Lucas Atchison made the discovery two years ago when he was on a family trip to the Point Farms Provincial Park near Goderich, according to a report in CBC.
Using his metal detector, gifted by the family on his birthday, Atchison found a small steel spike that was attached to a piece of wood, having additional spikes on it. After alerting his dad, the duo started digging deeper and found that the spikes and the wood were part of an entire wrecked ship.
“We were on the beach, we got our metal detector out, and as soon as we set it up, ding! It was a spike from the shipwreck,” said little Atchison.
“Then Dad told me, ‘Lucas this is a shipwreck’. When I woke up that morning, I did not expect to find a shipwreck!” he added.
Having made the discovery, the family reported the wreckage to provincial parks staff and subsequently reached out to the Ontario Marine Heritage Committee (OMHC) — a non-profit dedicated to recording and preserving marine history.
After acquiring the necessary approvals, excavation began at the site earlier this month, with OMHC finding more remnants of the ship, offering insight into the kind of vessel that lay beneath the ground all these years.
“We had double frames, which seems to suggest that it was stronger-built ship and we believe that it was a schooner,” said marine archaeologist Scarlett Janusas. “A schooner is usually a two-masted sailing vessel, usually wooden.”

Not enough wreckage has been recovered so far to surely ascertain the identity of the ship but as per the scientists, it could be the schooner St. Anthony, which sank in October 1856.
“It was described as having gone ashore four miles north of Goderich, which fits about where this wreckage is, and this would only represent a very small piece,” said marine historian Patrick Folkes.
As the excavation continues, volunteers will complete scale drawings of the wreck, including a plan view (from the top) and profile (side view) of the wreck.
Article Above Submitted by Janey Anderson @ Ship Junkies
Schooners
The word “schooner” emerged in eastern North America during the early 18th century. Its origin might be linked to a Scottish term that refers to gliding across water or the action of skipping stones. The schooner rig was employed across a variety of ships serving different functions.
Its strong performance when sailing upwind made it ideal for fast vessels like privateers, blockade runners, slave ships, smaller naval vessels, and opium clippers. Schooners were also commonly used as packet boats, which were designed for swiftly transporting passengers and goods. Known for their speed, fruit schooners carried perishable cargo on routes such as from the Azores to Britain. The rig was also adopted by some pilot boats for its efficiency.
Schooners were the primary fishing vessels used on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and were highly regarded as a refined example of the design. It was along the eastern coast of North America that the term “schooner” first came into use to describe this specific type of ship. In commercial settings, schooners gained popularity—particularly in the 19th century—because they were easier to handle in tight areas and required fewer crew members. While many operated nearshore, some schooners were built for long-distance, deep-sea voyages. By the mid-20th century, these once-prevalent vessels had largely disappeared from trade. Between roughly 1880 and 1920, the United States produced some exceptionally large schooners with five or more masts, primarily used to transport bulk materials like timber and coal.
Read The Scuba News Canada Article on the Bluenose I and Bluenose II
The Bluenose was a schooner built for both fishing on the Grand Banks and competitive racing, launched in 1921. Designed by William Roué, it was constructed in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Its successor, the Bluenose II, became a national symbol, representing Nova Scotia’s strong heritage in shipbuilding and the fishing industry.