In 1924, while summering at Wasaga Beach, he discovered a cannonball at the edge of the Nottawasaga River. Not content with this trophy he spent the next two seasons prowling around and discovered the hull of a sunken ship buried in a large island that had formed around the wreck. He had found the remains of HMS "Nancy", a British armed schooner sunk by the Americans on August 11, 1814, during the War of 1812. Conboy interested the Ontario government in the preservation of the historic relic and, thanks to his persistence, the hull was excavated, raised, placed on the island and made available for public inspection. In recognition of his enterprise, his friends presented him with a model of the ship carved from her original timber.