The New Jersey-based Atlantic Wreck Salvage (AWS) technical dive-team has announced its recent identification of the 60m-deep wreck of the steam-trawler Seiner, which disappeared on Georges Bank almost a century ago.
The North Atlantic wreck was the last of many to be identified over the years by 48-year-old technical diver Joe Mazraani, who died two days later on the same July expedition while diving a wreck known as “the Big Engine Steamer”, following what was described as a medical emergency.
The 42m steel fishing-boat Seiner had been built by Rice Bros of Boothbay, Maine in 1921, complete with double-drum trawl-winch and a raised forecastle deck.
It left the port of New London in Connecticut on 9 January, 1929, and was last heard from nine days later when Captain Thomas Miller sent his daily report to the owner, Portland Trawling.
Seiner failed to return to port as scheduled on 22 January, and was believed to have sunk in a storm. The owner and the US Coast Guard mounted a search and rescue mission involving other fishing vessels, 12 patrol boats and two destroyers but found no survivors from the crew of 21.
Time and weather
An AWS team led by Captains Mazraani and Eric Takakjian had used sidescan sonar from the group’s dive-boat Tenacious to discover what turned out to be the wreck-site in 2022.
However, time and weather constraints had prevented them from diving until they were able to mount a new expedition on 27 and 28 July this year.
A rescan confirmed that the vessel’s length and beam matched that of the Seiner, after which the team, which also included Andrew Donn, Tom Packer, Jennifer Sellitti and Rick Simon, were able to complete seven dives at the site.
“The team was able to identify Seiner from features such as the double-drum trawl-winch, remains of the raised forecastle deck, shape of the stern and the presence of a steam engine and boiler,” said Takakjian, who has been involved in the discovery of almost 100 shipwrecks.
“No other steel- or iron-hull steam trawlers of this size are known to have sunk on Georges Bank.”
Takakjian had first become aware of the Seiner sinking in the 1990s while researching WW1 trawler U-boat victims, though at that time searching for wrecks in the remote, deep and fast-flowing waters of Georges Bank posed too great a technical challenge. The site lies 200km out from Nantucket on the eastern edge of Georges Bank.
Bittersweet discovery
“The discovery of a new shipwreck can be bittersweet,” said Sellitti, owner of Atlantic Wreck Salvage and Tenacious and Mazraani’s partner. “While the team celebrates this important historical find, we are mindful of the loss endured by the families, colleagues and loved one of those who went down with the ship.
“We hope this discovery can provide some measure of closure to the descendants of those who perished.”
The group is keen for any descendants of the crew to get in touch, which they can do via the AWS website.
It has published a list of the missing seamen comprising Captain Miller, mate Merrill Greenleaf, chief engineer Ross Payne, assistant engineer Edward Morgan, cook Niles Hansen, radio operator Robert Horner; firemen Sidney Hann, Arthur Johnson and Jack Wilson; and 12 fishermen: Brendan Carew, Patrick Foley, John Hann, John Hayes, Michael Heddersen, John Hunt, John McGrath, Peter McGrath, Patrick Parsons, Georg Peters, Christopher Powers and William Whalen.
