144-year-old Arctic shipwreck discovered off Alaska

Archaeologists have discovered the wrecks of two American whalers off the Arctic coast of Alaska, almost 145 years after ice trapped a whaling fleet and sent 33 ships to the bottom, reports The Guardian.
Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) announced the discovery this week. Brad Barr, a Noaa archaeologist and the project’s co-director, said his team had found two hulls, two anchors and many other artifacts.
“One of the wrecks is infested with critters,” he said, “with mussels all attached to one of the beams, but in general, for 144 years of being subjected to moving ice on top of them, I think it’s pretty remarkable that they’re in the state that they’re in.”
In 1871 American whalers spanned the world, leaving north-eastern coastal towns to hunt in the open Pacific and the far reaches of the Arctic.
Decades of whaling had driven them to distant corners in search of disappearing prey and off Alaska that September, late in the season, 33 captains waited for wind to break up the packing ice.
The wind never shifted. Instead the ice slowly tore into the hull of each vessel, holding the ships in place as it broke them apart. On 12 September 1871 the captains met on board one ship, the Champion, to debate their choices. The lives of 1,219 stranded whalers, crewmen and even family members were at stake.
“It wasn’t uncommon in whaling at that period for captains to take their wives and children, because if they didn’t take them they wouldn’t see them for years,” Barr said. “And many of the children grew up whaling and became captains themselves, following the family.”
The crews abandoned the ships and managed to contact seven other whalers who had been waiting for the fleet in open water, 80 miles south. Those ships rescued the survivors, but only after dumping valuable gear – the supplies that made whaleships a floating “special plantation”, as Herman Melville put it – as well as the whale oil, bone and baleen for which they had crossed the world.
The ships were 19th century factories, Barr said, laden with everything needed to not only find an 80-ton whale but to “bring them alongside, cut them up, and boil them down”.
No one died in the ice rescue, and the survivors scattered to Honolulu, San Francisco and back to the east coast. Barr estimated that the disaster cost the whaling industry about $33.3m in modern terms, and said it contributed the ultimate decline of American whaling.
The ships, slowly smashed by the ice, sank over several weeks. They were considered lost save for stray gear and timbers found on beaches along the Alaskan coast, sometimes by local Inupiat people.
The Noaa team pieced together first-hand accounts of the disaster, searched open water and used sonar and other sophisticated technology to find magnetic signatures of the wrecks.

 

144-year-old Arctic shipwreck discovered off Alaska

Archaeologists have discovered the wrecks of two American whalers off the Arctic coast of Alaska, almost 145 years after ice trapped a whaling fleet and sent 33 ships to the bottom, reports The Guardian. Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) announced the discovery this week. Brad Barr, a Noaa archaeologist and the projects co-director, said his team had found two hulls, two anchors and many other artifacts. One of the wrecks is infested with critters, he said, with mussels all attached to one of the beams, but in general, for 144 years of being subjected to moving ice on top of them, I think its pretty remarkable that theyre in the state that theyre in. In 1871 American whalers spanned the world, leaving north-eastern coastal towns to hunt in the open Pacific and the far reaches of the Arctic. Decades of whaling had driven them to distant corners in search of disappearing prey and off Alaska that September, late in the season, 33 captains waited for wind to break up the packing ice. The wind never shifted. Instead the ice slowly tore into the hull of each vessel, holding the ships in place as it broke them apart. On 12 September 1871 the captains met on board one ship, the Champion, to debate their choices. The lives of 1,219 stranded whalers, crewmen and even family members were at stake. It wasnt uncommon in whaling at that period for captains to take their wives and children, because if they didnt take them they wouldnt see them for years, Barr said. And many of the children grew up whaling and became captains themselves, following the family. The crews abandoned the ships and managed to contact seven other whalers who had been waiting for the fleet in open water, 80 miles south. Those ships rescued the survivors, but only after dumping valuable gear the supplies that made whaleships a floating special plantation, as Herman Melville put it as well as the whale oil, bone and baleen for which they had crossed the world. The ships were 19th century factories, Barr said, laden with everything needed to not only find an 80-ton whale but to bring them alongside, cut them up, and boil them down. No one died in the ice rescue, and the survivors scattered to Honolulu, San Francisco and back to the east coast. Barr estimated that the disaster cost the whaling industry about $33.3m in modern terms, and said it contributed the ultimate decline of American whaling. The ships, slowly smashed by the ice, sank over several weeks. They were considered lost save for stray gear and timbers found on beaches along the Alaskan coast, sometimes by local Inupiat people. The Noaa team pieced together first-hand accounts of the disaster, searched open water and used sonar and other sophisticated technology to find magnetic signatures of the wrecks.