Lost At Sea: Five Historical Shipwrecks

Ξ July 10th, 2011 | → Comments Off | ∇ |

Shipwrecks have always been intriguing. The idea of broken ships lying on the seafloor gold and cargo scattered by the shifting tides, artifacts of a by-gone era scarcely touched by the sun guarded only by the creatures of the deep. Is it any wonder that men and women often take vacations or even abandon their jobs to hop on a boat, strap on a tank, and search the seas for these sunken wrecks. It is not so much about the treasure as it is being the first to lay eyes on a ship that has been lost for decades or even centuries. Sunken ships are time capsules. Five of history’s most famous shipwrecks are examined below.
1)The SS Central America
Lost at sea on September 9, 1857 the SS Central America went down off the coast of North Carolina. 425 people were lost after the ship was caught in a Category 2 hurricane. Losing power due to a ruptured seal in one of the seals the ship was foundering as the second half of the storm hit. It went down with over 10 tons of gold. Found the Columbus America Discovery Group on September 11, 1987 between 100-150 million dollars in gold was recovered.
2) The Queen Anne’s Revenge
This article would be incomplete if no pirate ships were included, and why not include the most famous pirate of them all’s, Blackbeard, ship the Queen Anne’s Revenge. After a successful blockade of Charleston harbor Blackbeard ran the Queen Anne’s Revenge aground in the Beaufort Inlet. Legends of a falling out amongst Captains a pirate’s gold quickly sprang up. In 1996 Intersal Inc. happened upon on a cannon bearing the name Queen Anne’s Revenge. Since then over 2,000 artifacts have been recovered, but no gold has been found.
3) The Hunley
The first submarine to ever sink a ship, this Civil War era sub went down off the coast of Charleston after successfully sinking the USS Housatonic in 1867. PT Barnum offered a 100,000 dollar reward for its recovery, but it wasn’t until 1995 that it was found intact by Clive Cussler of NUMA.
4) The Andrea Doria
The Andrea Doria was a passenger ship. In July of 1956 it was struck by a Swedish steamer. It sank 11 miles south of Nantucket. Amazingly 1,648 of 1,700 passengers were saved. This ship has been found and divers who have visited the site say that it is intact.
5) The General Slocum
This wreck occurred in the East River in New York City, NY. On June 15, 1904 the congregation of St Mark’s Church of Manhattan boarded the Slocum for their annual picnic at Locust Point. The ship caught fire. It sank just off the shore of North Brother Island. Over 1,000 passengers were lost making it one of the great tragedies of American History.