CAPE VINCENT (AP) -- Two northern New York men say they've discovered the wreck of a rare 19th century ship that sank where Lake Ontario empties into the St. Lawrence River.

Dennis McCarthy and Raymond Couch say they discovered what appears to be a Great Lakes sloop after forgetting to turn off their side-scan sonar while searching for shipwrecks last August near Cape Vincent, on the lake's northeast end.

They told the Watertown Daily Times (http://bit.ly/vf7Q9Y ) that they videotaped the 50-foot-long and 14-foot-wide wreck. Last month, the state historic preservation office confirmed that the wreck was a new find.

McCarthy and Couch say the wreck appears similar to Hudson River sloops but has unique features not seen before on the Great Lakes.

They believe the unidentified ship hauled cargo before it sank sometime between 1850 and 1870.

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