Exploring HMS St. Lawrence

[Wide shot of Jonathan sitting behind a wood table on which various objects have been placed].

My name is Jonathan Moore, and I'm a senior underwater archeologist with Parks Canada's underwater archeology team.

[Shot cuts to looking over the Jonathan's shoulder at the objects on the table. He motions over a framed painting of a ship.]

I'm from Kingston and I've been looking at the war of 1812 shipwrecks in Kingston for just about thirty years.

[Cut to a photograph of a SCUBA diver taking photos of wooden timbers of a shipwreck. Then cut to a painting of the HMS St. Lawrence. Slow zoom out.]

It's quite amazing that the remains of the largest wooden warship ever built on the Great Lakes, HMS St. Lawrence, lie in shallow water just off the shore of Kingston, Ontario.

[Dissolve to a photo of a diver holding a clipboard, floating overtop of many wooden timbers. Then dissolve to Jonathan sitting at the table.]

This vessel was built in 1814, and had up to 112 guns on three gun-decks.

[Cut to a painting of the launch of HMS St. Lawrence and then Jonathan holding a framed painting of the same image.]

It was a massive, massive warship.

[Cut back to Jonathan at the table, and then over his shoulder as he picks up a print of ship plans. Cut to a front view of Jonathan holding the print as he speaks.]

What we see in early 1815 is the master shipwright, Thomas Strickland, of the dockyard -- he's the chief shipwright

[Cut to as close up of the ship plans in elevation, as they slide across the screen from right to left. Cut to a detail cross section of the St. Lawrence.]

-- set about creating detailed ship plans, of all of the ships that belong to the Royal Navy on Lake Ontario.

[Dissolve to shot over Jonathan's shoulder holding a print of the cross section plans. Then cut back to front view of Jonathan speaking.]

After the war of 1812, it sat idle, more or less abandoned in Navy Bay, left in a half-sunken state, rotting for about 17-18 years.

[Dissolve to shot over Jonathan's shoulder holding a framed period painting of Kingston harbour. Cut back to wide shot of Jonathan at the table, picking up a newspaper clipping].

So by the early 1830s, the decision had been made to shut down the dockyard.

[Cut to a closeup of Jonathan's hands holding the newspaper clipping. Then cut to close shot on Jonathan's face.]

One of the things that the dockyard commissioner, Robert Barry, had to do, was try to get rid of much of the material, clean up the yard as much he possibly can.

[Dissolve to shot over Jonathan's shoulder holding holding the newspaper clipping. The cut to front views of Jonathan speaking.]

In November 1831, there was a notice placed in the Kingston newspaper announcing that there would be an auction of not only the hulks of the larger ships that were still at the dockyard in Navy Bay but also a lot of the stores and equipment and rigging that would have been lying around the dockyard for many many many years.

[A close up of the newspaper clipping with slow zoom in.]

St. Lawrence was sold for 25 pounds in 1832, and in January 1833, it was pumped out and towed across the harbour by Robert Drummond's new side wheel steamer, called the Rideau, and it was taken to Drummond's property where it was used as a cordwood dock.

[Dissolve to wide shot of Jonathan at the table holding. Cut to a close up of the print which depicts a map of Kingston and the route of the St. Lawrence.]

The frustrating thing about the St. Lawrence's story after it was sold and used as a cordwood dock, the historical record goes silent.

[Cut back to Jonathan speaking.]

As far as I know, we don't have any drawings or sketches or depictions of the vessel while it was serving as a cordwood dock.

[Cut to a series of underwater images of the modern wreck site fo the St. Lawrence.]

By the early 2000's, a new method of recording had emerged: photogrammetry.

[Cut similar photographs with photogrammetry overlays in blue.]

Whereby we can take many hundreds of photographs of a structure and computer software can stitch them all together and create a 3-dimensional rendering of the hull remains.

[Dissolve to a realistic 3d-animation of the St. Lawrence remains. Camera orbits the model, and then a 2D image of the ships plans descends and locks into place in the model.]

Another great thing about the photogrammetry is that we can use it to juxtapose the archeology, as represented by the 3D-model, with scans of the ship plans. So in a way we can compare the archeological record with the historical record.

[Cut to wide view of Jonathan speaking.]

The photogrammetry project has really been important in the case of the St. Lawrence because it's helped us really understand our collective history here: it tells us about the story of the war of 1812, the contest for the command of Lake Ontario during the war of 1812.

[Dissolve to painting of HMS St. Lawrence sailing, slow pan up. Disolve to shot over Jonathan's shoulder, showing clues on the table.]

The tremendous ship building effort that took place here over about a three-year period that culminated in the construction and launch of St. Lawrence.

[Cut to wide view of Jonathan speaking.]

This wreck is a direct connection with some really important events in our nation's history. It's important that we do everything we can to preserve and present these remains to the public.

[Dissolved to the objects on the table over Jonathan's shoulder. Then fade to black.]