An unexpected shipwreck find has been made off Florida, during what NOAA Ocean Exploration called its “2022 ROV & Mapping Shakedown” – the testing of remotely operated vehicles and mapping systems that precedes the US body’s annual deep-sea expedition projects.
Seabed discoveries are not the objective of such tests, but on the second dive in the Gulf of Mexico from the research vessel Okeanos Explorer in late February, the ROVs Seirios and Deep Discoverer spotted traces of what is believed to have been a 19th-century whaling ship.
The visible remains of the whaler consisted of two rusty anchors, one with a broken fluke, and a “tryworks” – a furnace used to render whale blubber into oil. Bottles and ballast can also seen on the seabed. The ROVs later returned for a closer examination and recording of the wreck site.
The remains appeared to rest on a mound representing the outline of the ship. Most of its timbers were likely to have disintegrated but the crew reckon that the whaler was likely to have dated to between 1800 and 1840.
At that time whalers in the Gulf of Mexico found easy pickings in hunting for slow-moving right whales. The then-abundant species was valued for the fact that the whales’ carcasses floated, making it easier to access the large amount of oil they carried.
The NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration) Ocean Exploration shakedown was scheduled to finish on 3 March.
Find previous NOAA Ocean Exploration projects reported on Divernet including deep-sea jellyfish, the “Green Banana” blue hole and the world’s biggest sponge.
