Fate of War of 1812 shipwreck playing out in U.S. courts

The legal battle over a recently discovered Lake Erie shipwreck -- believed to be the storied, Canadian-built brig Caledonia from the War of 1812 -- took another twist last week in a New York court as the U.S. salvage company that found the sunken vessel rejected accusations by state lawyers it has "plundered" the wreck site and disturbed human remains.

The struggle over the fate of the well-preserved wreck -- purported to be a 203-year-old troop transport involved in the first British-Canadian victory of the War of 1812 -- comes with the clock ticking toward the war's bicentennial and amid controversial plans to raise the ship for display on Lake Erie's southern shore near Buffalo, New York.

Thursday's court hearing before U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara followed a state magistrate's ruling in May that the wreck should be left preserved on the lake bottom -- the position held by state legal and archeological officials....


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