Old Sloop will be Sunk in Ontario

The old sloop that has for many years been an eye sore in the good appearance of the harbor at Sackets will soon receive its internment in Lake Ontario. The ship, according to Mrs. Mary Metcalf of Sackets Harbor, entered the harbor about 50 to 60 years ago, but how it came in to be sunk and why it was allowed to remain in the harbor for so many years is still a mystery for even Sackets Harbor, with its game gained by having so many of its inhabitants live in such old ages, cannot produce two persons who can tell the same story about the old craft. At most every inhabitant of Sackets has fished off the old boat.

The boat is about 60 long, formerly a sloop rigged, and is about 15 feet in beam. It is thought to have been a sloop of war. The men at work at the Naval Militia station have pulled the boat up on the shore that it may dry out. This feat was accomplished by attaching wire to the bay side of the hulk and carrying the chain tackles to trees on the shore.

Upon the thorough drying of the boat, she will be towed out to deep water and sunk. The old sloop, with its masts which formerly projected high in the air, but which recently fell down, has long been a menace to the good anchorage in that section of the harbor, and it ha hampered the sailors so much in their work, that the step of removing the boat was undertaken.

The project involves another old wreck that the men will remove in the near future. This is in another section of the harbor, and it is probable that the removing will be accomplished by dynamite.

The work on the contracts for repairs betterments, and improvements in the local Naval Militia station at Ship House Pint is progressing rapidly. The roof of the station has been shingled and the dormer windows built. It is expected that the work will be finished in time for the men to use the station this summer.