Learn Great Lakes Seaway Trail maritime history at Blue Byway Seminar

War of 1812 and Revolutionary War shipwrecks, rum runners, a National Weather Service forensic meteorologist, and the new Great Lakes-wide boaters forecast are all on the Oct. 5 Great Lakes Seaway Trail Blue Byway Seminar agenda at SUNY Oswego.

The program runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. It is co-sponsored by the Great Lakes Seaway Trail and New York Sea Grant. The program includes:

•Christopher Nicholson, who designed, built and piloted the remotely-piloted vehicle for the National Geographic Society film of the schooners Hamilton and Scourge that sank in Lake Ontario during the War of 1812. Nicholson, president of Deep Sea Systems International (Cataumet, Mass.), has provided technical assistance and engineering services for the exploration of the WWII battleship Arizona, the H.M.S. Breadalbane, and famed freighter Edmund Fitzgerald.

•National Weather Service forecaster and forensic meteorologist Robert Hamilton speaking on historic weather conditions on Lake Ontario that influenced the wreck of the 22-gun British warship HMS Ontario during the Revolutionary War.

•New York Sea Grant Coastal Recreation and Tourism Specialist Dave White will provide an update on the Great Lakes observing system boaters forecasting tool that is now available throughout the Great Lakes region

•A guest describing "Two Tank Tips" for great diving destinations on the Great Lakes Seaway Trail, and

•A speaker on Prohibition-era rum running.

Preregistration (by Oct. 1) is $10 at www.seawaytrail.com/dive. Late registration and admission at the door is $15, as space allows. For more information, call 315-646-1000, ext. 203.

The Great Lakes Seaway Trail Blue Byway Seminar is part of the Great Lakes Seaway Trail Underwater Series of maritime heritage and history programs.

The Great Lakes Seaway Trail is a 518-mile National Scenic Byway that offers unique land and water travel opportunities along Lake Erie, the Niagara River, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. Learn more at www.seawaytrail.com.