Have you ever wondered what the shipwrecks below Lake Ontario look like? Now you can see them in vivid detail — courtesy of the efforts of local underwater explorers.
The H. Lee White Maritime Museum at Oswego is hosting the new exhibit “Shipwrecks of Upstate New York” available for viewing through the 2023 season. Museum is open 1-5 p.m. daily exhibit runs through the summer.
Developed by local divers and shipwreck enthusiasts Tim Caza and Dennis Gerber, the exhibit features 25 3D printed and hand-painted scale models of shipwrecks located beneath the waters of Lake Ontario and Central New York. What you see is an exact representation of their current appearance, just as a diver would see it. Caza, Gerber and fellow divers have spent many years researching, locating and diving the wrecks that had been given up for lost. Through their diligent efforts searching the waters of Upstate New York, these long-lost ships have been rediscovered, untouched by no one else except nature and have been given a new life.
Caza is a licensed USCG captain and an active scuba diver with more than 45 years of experience specializing in wreck diving, search and discovery of lost ships.
Gerber is a retired electronics’ engineer and has 37 years of experience diving in the waters of the greater Central New York region. He designed and built the side scan sonar that has helped find many of the discoveries featured in the exhibit. Gerber also developed the software used to communicate to and display the sonar fish data.
For more information about the work of Caza and Gerber, visit their website: sonarguy.com
“With the pending designation of a new National Marine Sanctuary on Lake Ontario, there couldn’t be a more fitting time to encourage the public to explore the submerged cultural resources of our region,” said Mercedes Niess, executive director of the H. Lee White Maritime Museum and Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary advisory council member.
