Researchers have discovered the shipwreck site of one of the deadliest maritime disasters in Pacific Northwest history and are publishing details of the nearly 150-year-old find.
Maritime archaeologists from the Rockfish Inc. group say they have found the wreck of the SS Pacific which sank in November 1875, claiming more than 300 lives and is believed to have left only two survivors. Fox 13 Seattle reported.
The ship left Olympia early on the morning of November 4, 1875, making several stops to pick up several wealthy passengers associated with the Pacific Northwest Gold Rush of the 1870s. Researchers believe the valuable artifacts, including gold, could be hidden among the wreckage.
“One of the two survivors, his bunk was right at the point of impact, he said he was gushing in and 20 minutes, 30 minutes later the boat was on the bottom,” Rockfish Inc.’s Jeff Hummel told the outlet about the incident. shipwreck that occurred after a “mid-water collision” off the coast of Cape Flattery.
SUNKEN JEWELS, BURIED TREASURE DISCOVERED IN BAHAMAS FROM ICONIC 17TH CENTURY SPANISH SHIPWRECK
SS Pacific
(Fox 13 Seattle)
Eyewitness accounts of the wreck, which many have tried to locate over the years, detail an ordeal when passengers were trampled during a panic on board and lifeboats were rendered inoperable after being filled with water to balance the ship. steam boat.
Hummel says the team of more than 40 people, operating in conjunction with the Northwest Shipwreck Alliance, spent countless hours and more than $2 million on 12 expeditions between 2017 and 2022 trying to locate the wreck and ultimately succeeded after surveying the sites. where fishermen found carbon in their nets while trawling.
GOLD RUSH SUNNKEN TREASURES RECOVERED FROM 1857 SHIPWRECK TO BE HELD AT RENO AUCTION
SS Pacific wreck site
(Fox 13 Seattle)
NEW YORK DOCTOR IN CHARGE OF $100 MILLION FRAUD RING DISAPPEARS IN ATLANTIC OCEAN
That information, along with decades of archival research complicated by a historically violent storm that hit the region at the time the ship sank, helped the team pinpoint a location roughly 40 miles south of Cape Flattery and 23 miles from the coast.
The team created two remotely operated vehicles that took side-scan sonar images, which they later confirmed with optical cameras, to identify the ship and the crew hopes the “world-class find” will drop anything from wine bottles to no open, clothing made of leather or wool, and other artifacts that will help tell the story of those who perished on board.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Dried wood from the wreck of the SS Pacific
(Fox 13 Seattle)
“It looks so different than anyone expected,” Hummel said. “Initially, it looks like it’s got the wrong size, shape, and everything else. You slowly work through using the robots, imagining things and looking at them until we finally realized, ‘Oh wait, that’s the ship.’ It took a while.”
The next step in the process will be to recover items aboard the ship, work that the crew says will begin in 2023 or 2024.
