Wooden Bones DVD - The Sunken Fleet of 1758 - Lake George New York Shipwreck Documentary

wo hundred fifty years ago the British and French fought for control of a North American empire in a bloody conflict known as the French & Indian War (1755-1763). This clash of European rivals was contested along the frontier lands of the thirteen British colonies and New France (Canada). One of the battlegrounds of this horrific fighting was the 32 mile long Lake George, a picturesque waterway nestled in the Adirondack Mts. in present day New York state.

It was October of 1758, three years into this colonial war. With winter approaching and no fort to protect their mountain lake fleet, Fort William Henry had been destroyed the previous year, British forces at Lake George made a fateful decision. They deliberately sank much of their flotilla to protect them from their enemy, the French. The British put their warships into “cold storage” intending to raise their battlecraft the following year in 1759.

Many of these wooden vessels were not retrieved in 1759 and today they offer unparalleled opportunities for scientific study. These skeletal remains include the remnants of over 260 colonial warships deliberately sunk by the British, a submerged military wharf built in 1758, and a lost 1960-built yellow research submarine constructed to help photograph shipwrecks of “The Sunken Fleet of 1758.”

For over 20 years, a group of shipwreck sleuths with the not-for-profit corporation Bateaux Below have worked to answer puzzling questions about “The Sunken Fleet of 1758.” Why did the British deliberately sink much of their mountain lake squadron? How did the British raise many of these warships? And how did this unconventional strategy help the British win the French & Indian War? Join underwater archaeologists with Bateaux Below as they dive into the dark depths of Lake George to uncover “Wooden Bones.”

“Wooden Bones: The Sunken Fleet of 1758” DVD costs $24.95. Part of the proceeds from the sale of the DVD goes to Bateaux Below to support future underwater archaeology projects at Lake George, New York.

“Archaeology is a glimpse into the past…a window so that we can find out what happened back then…Every time that we analyze our data a window opens to the past that can tell us so much about Lake George and the shipwrecks that are found there. These wooden bones tell us about how people lived in the 18th century and they enrich our lives today.” — Joseph W. Zarzynski, Underwater Archaeologist (Bateaux Below, Inc.)