ARCTIC WHALERS FOUND

16 January 2016: Somehow we have been posting about stuff underwater - and for now, we are continuing that line of thought. Some of you may have seen the article about the Arctic whale ships that were recently discovered on the bottom up in the frozen north - in case you didn't (it was not widely circulated) here is the gist of it.

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"Archaeologists have discovered the battered hulls of two 1800s whaling ships nearly 144 years after their sinking off the Arctic coast of Alaska along with a fleet 31 others," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has announced.

 

The shipwrecks and parts of other ships that were located are most likely the remains of 33 ships that became trapped by pack ice close to Alaska’s shores in September 1871," NOAA says. 
 
“Earlier research by a number of scholars suggested that some of the ships that were crushed and sunk might still be on the seabed,” said Brad Barr, NOAA archaeologist and project co-director. “But until now, no one had found definitive proof of any of the lost fleet beneath the water. This exploration provides an opportunity to write the last chapter of this important story of American maritime heritage and also bear witness to some of the impacts of a warming climate on the region’s environmental and cultural landscape, including diminishing sea ice and melting permafrost.”
The ships were destroyed by the ice in a matter of weeks, leaving the more than 1,200 whalers stranded until they were eventually rescued by other whaling ships in the area.

No one died in the incident, but it is cited as one of the major causes of the demise of commercial whaling in the United States, according to NOAA.

NOAA says the shipwrecks were first discovered back in September when a team of archaeologists from the Maritime Heritage Program in NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries searched a 30-mile stretch of coastline nearshore in the Chukchi Sea, near Wainwright, Alaska.

“Earlier research by a number of scholars suggested that some of the ships that were crushed and sunk might still be on the seabed,” said Brad Barr, NOAA archaeologist and project co-director. “But until now, no one had found definitive proof of any of the lost fleet beneath the water. This exploration provides an opportunity to write the last chapter of this important story of American maritime heritage and also bear witness to some of the impacts of a warming climate on the region’s environmental and cultural landscape, including diminishing sea ice and melting permafrost.”

some of the artifacts discovered
 

Thanks to NOAA and gCaptain for this interesting story. Should more come to the surface, I will be sure to pass it along.

Until next time,
                            Fair Winds.
                                 Old Salt