200-Year-Old Shipwreck Discovered in Gulf of Mexico
Posted on May 18, 2012
During a recent Gulf of Mexico expedition, NOAA, BOEM and partners discovered a historic wooden-hulled vessel. The ship is believed to have sunk as long as 200 years ago. A sea anemone (pictured above) is living on top of a musket at the site of the shipwreck.
Scientists on board the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer used underwater robots to view remnants of the ship laden with anchors, navigational instruments, glass bottles, ceramic plates, cannons, and boxes of muskets. Most of the ship's wood has disintegrated, but copper that sheathed the hull remains, leaving a copper shell retaining the form of the ship.
Jack Irion, Ph.D., a maritime archaeologist with BOEM, says, "Artifacts in and around the wreck and the hull's copper sheathing may date the vessel to the early to mid-19th century. Some of the more datable objects include what appears to be a type of ceramic plate that was popular between 1800 and 1830, and a wide variety of glass bottles. A rare ship's stove on the site is one of only a handful of surviving examples in the world and the second one found on a shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexico."
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