Abstract

In 2001, low water levels on Lake Huron exposed several frame tips of a shipwreck buried under the sand of a Southampton, Ontario, beach. A series of archaeological excavations between 2001 and 2004 revealed and documented the buried hull of an unidentified early 19th-century Great Lakes sailing vessel. This paper describes how the subsequent analysis of artifacts from the shipwreck, combined with lengthy archival research, culminated in the positive identification of the hull as the War of 1812 British Royal Navy Brig H. M.S. General Hunter.