During a family trip to Point Farms Provincial Park north of Goderich, Ont. in 2023, Lucas Atchison was using a metal detector that he got as a gift for his birthday, when he found something big and old.

"We were on the beach, we got our metal detector out, and as soon as we set it up, ding! It was a spike from the shipwreck,"  Lucas said, who is now 10.  

He recalls alerting his dad, who at first thought the spike may have been used to tie up a boat. But Lucas wasn't convinced, and the pair star…