Contact:

Dave White, New York Sea Grant, Recreation/Tourism Specialist, P: 315.312.3042, E: dgw9@cornell.edu

Note: Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors age 62 or older and retired military with ID, $5 for children under 14, and free Blue Star admission for active military with ID. Advance discount tickets: www.seawaytrail.com/underwater through September 7. Day of the event seating is $15 for any remaining seats.

Clayton, NY, August 29, 2012 - There’s an endless fascination with the nautical history of the Great Lakes and St Lawrence River and that history will be revisited next month at a seminar in Clayton.

As cited in this video clip from Syracuse, NY-based Your News Now (YNN), some of the great shipwrecks, like the HMS Ontario, will be discussed by experts, including an underwater explorer and a historical archaeologist. The panel will also include a meteorologist with the National Weather Service who will talk about historic weather patterns on the water.

Experts say there's a lot more history to these wrecks than most people realize.

“When you start to learn about these ships and you find out how much they had on them, how many people they had on them, it begins to put the whole thread together whether we’re talking about the War of Independence, the French and Indian War or the War of 1812, it really begins to put the thread together of how the waterways throughout New York State were pivotal in the various wars and excursions the folks had,” said New York Sea Grant Coastal Recreation and Tourism Specialist Dave White.

The seminar will be held at the Clayton Opera House on September 8th. It runs from noon to 5 p.m., with advance tickets for $10 and remaining seats on the day of the show for $15.

The YNN channel, based in Syracuse, telecasts two separate program feeds, one to Central/Northern New York; one to the Southern Tier. YNN is available to nearly 600,000 cable subscribers across a 25-county, 15,000 square mile area.