Terrible thing! If it was started, I hope that they catch the bastard and keelhaul him!

I spent a lot of time on the brig Niagara when we lived in Erie, Pennsylvania. It was part of Perry's Great Lakes fleet, and was purposely sunk in 1820 as excess to the US Navy's needs at the time. It was later raised, in 1913, as part of the centenary of the War of 1812. The term used for what was done to the Niagara is "reconstruction" - although there are original timbers in the present ship, they are more-or-less encapsulated and aren't really part of the ship's structure. The Niagara sails on a regular basis, mostly locally, in Lake Erie.