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Related: About this forumArchaeologists Discover Wreckage of 33 Ships Lost for 144 Years Along Alaska Coastline
Archaeologists Discover Wreckage of 33 Ships Lost for 144 Years Along Alaska Coastline
By AVIANNE TAN
Jan 8, 2016, 2:50 PM ET
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A small anchor; a chain plate, which held rigging used to tighten masts; and an iron knee, which was likely part of the ship's frame.
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Archaeologists have discovered a shipwreck nearly 144 years after 33 whaling ships sank off the Arctic coast of Alaska in "one of the planet's most unexplored ocean regions," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The "battered hulls" of two ships and parts of the other missing 31 were located this past fall, thanks to sonar and sensing technology, NOAA said in a news release this week.
"With less ice in the Arctic as a result of climate change, archaeologists now have more access to potential shipwreck sites than ever before," the NOAA said.
The 33 ships were abandoned on Sept. 12, 1871 after they got trapped in packed ice, NOAA explained. Over 1,200 whalers were stranded until seven nearby ships picked them up. No one died, but the incident is "cited as one of the major causes of the demise of commercial whaling" in the U.S, NOAA said.
More:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/archaeologists-discover-wreckage-33-ships-lost-144-years/story?id=36169589
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)The movie, "in the Heart of teh Sea" depicts the whaling culture very well, including how far from the East Coast the whaling ships had to travel as the supply of whales decreased.
Brother Buzz
(36,463 posts)The smart East Coast whaleboat owners pocket the insurance money rather then reinvest in a dying business, and the loss represented about a quarter of the American whaling fleet.
gladium et scutum
(808 posts)of petroleum oil in the 1850s and anything do with the demise of the whaling industry in this country.