Former commander of Rochester Police Dive Team locates a 120 year old shipwreck in Canandaigua Lake

A local man discovered a sunken ship when looking at Canandaigua Lake on his computer one day.

Scott Hill found the steam boat called the Seneca Chief. It sunk over 120 years ago and had been entirely forgotten about until now.

Hill says he has had a fascination with the water since he was a child and has imagined what it would look like to drain the lake just to see what was in it.

His resume boasts being the former commander of the Rochester Police Dive Team as well as working for Pictometry, an aerial imaging business, so he has experience locating things in the water.

He said when looking one day, the water was perfectly clear and calm, so he started looking around and found the shipwreck in the north end of the lake.

He then dove the 15 feet it took to reach the ship.

He learned the ship had been built in Buffalo in 1888 and brought to Canandaigua by train.

The ship was made of steel and Hill believes it had limited use on the lake, saying it was most likely sunk intentionally.
