Relying on historical records and
accounts from old timers, AL.com may have located the long-lost wreck of the
Clotilda, the last slave ship to bring human cargo to the United States.
What's left of the ship lies
partially buried in mud alongside an island in the lower Mobile-Tensaw Delta, a
few miles north of the city of Mobile. The hull is tipped to the port side,
which appears almost completely buried in mud. The entire length of the
starboard side, however, is almost fully exposed. The wreck, which is normally
underwater, was exposed during extreme low tides brought on by the same weather
system that brought the "Bomb Cyclone" to the Eastern Seaboard. Low
tide around Mobile was about two and a half feet below normal thanks to north
winds that blew for days.
"I'm quaking with excitement.
This would be a story of world historical significance, if this is the
Clotilda," said John Sledge, a senior historian with Mobile Historical
Commission, and author of The Mobile River, an exhaustive history of the river.
"It's certainly in the right vicinity... We always knew it should be right
around there."
This reporter, Ben Raines, used the
abnormally low tides to search for the ship after researching possible
locations. The remote spot where the ship was found, deep in the swampy
Mobile-Tensaw Delta, is accessible only by boat. During my first trips after
discovering the wreck, I documented it with photographs and aerials shot with a
drone. Over the next week, I ferried a shipwright expert in the construction techniques
used on old wooden vessels and a team of archaeologists from the University of
West Florida to the site.
All concluded that the wreck dated
to the mid 1800s (the Clotilda was built in 1855), and featured construction
techniques typical of Gulf Coast schooners used to haul lumber and other heavy
cargo, as the Clotilda was designed to do. The vessel also bore telltale signs
of being burned, as the Clotilda reportedly was. In later years, the slavers
bragged of burning the ship at the conclusion of their voyage in July of 1860
in an effort to hide proof of their human trafficking. Evidence of a fire on
the wreck included a distinctive patina on wrought iron chain plates used to
hold the masts and bowsprit in place, and charred beams and timbers in the ship's
interior.
"These ships were the
18-wheelers of their day. They were designed to haul a huge amount of cargo in
relatively shallow water," said Winthrop Turner, a shipwright specializing
in wooden vessels. "That's why you see the exceptional number of big iron
drifts used to hold the planking together. That's also why the sides of the
ship are so stout. They are almost two feet thick. The construction techniques
here, no threaded bolts, iron drifts, butt jointed planking, these all confirm
a ship built between 1850 and 1880."
The team of University of West
Florida archaeologists, led by Greg Cook and John Bratten, agreed. The men have
made a career of exploring shipwrecks, including Spanish galleons sunk in
Pensacola Bay in 1559 and slave ships sunk off the coast of Africa. They were
contacted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration several years
ago about searching for the Clotilda, but nothing ever came of the plan. After
examining the aerials, images and historical documents I had assembled, the
archaeologists visited the wreck on a chilly morning, temperatures just above
freezing.
"There is nothing here to say this isn't the Clotilda, and several things that say it might be," Bratten concurred, adding that several bits of evidence assembled by AL.com make a strong case for further exploration.
So far, the investigation is only visual, with no attempts made to dig up the hull or remove artifacts. Alabama laws governing ship wrecks carry stiff penalties, including the confiscation of boats and other equipment, for disturbing shipwrecks or military battlefields without permits.
One of the key elements that suggests this may be the Clotilda comes from the location where it was found. The ship lies essentially where its captain, William Foster, said he burned and sank it in 1860.
Even so, the archaeologists stressed, a conclusive determination can only be made by documenting any artifacts that remain in the hold, if such a determination can even be made. So far, the scientists have only examined the parts of the ship that can be seen above the mud that encases most of the hull. Turner, the shipwright, estimated that the bottom of the ship may be as deep as ten feet down in the mud, based on certain parts of the ship that are visible above the mud. Digging into the past will require both federal and state permits, and a lot of money.
Here's an interesting video (a bit long, I agree) of Clothilda's (?) discovery. Click on the link:
4 minute video of discovery
That's it for now. Until next time,
Fair Winds,
Old Salt
