A French transatlantic liner that sank in unusual circumstances 168 years ago with the loss of most of her 132 passengers and crew has been discovered by a New Jersey dive-team – 320km off the coast of Massachusetts.
The captain of the vessel that collided with Le Lyonnais in 1856 had continued on his way, claiming to have been unaware that it was doomed.
The Atlantic Wreck Salvage divers, operating out of New Bedford on their expedition vessel Tenacious, had been seeking the wreck for a number of years. Its exact depth and location has not been disclosed, but it is said to lie in “deep water”, much of it buried in the sandy seabed.
In transition
Le Lyonnais was built in England for Compagnie Franco-Americaine in 1855, the year before her sinking, by Laird & Sons of Birkenhead. She was one of six ships intended for use carrying passengers and mail across the Atlantic – in her case between Le Havre and New York.
Shipbuilding was in transition at the time, and Le Lyonnais was built both with sails and a steam engine.
“Being one of the first French passenger steamships to have a regularly scheduled run crossing
the Atlantic and an early transitional steamship make Le Lyonnais’ discovery significant,” says Eric Takakjian, the member of the dive-team who had been working longest on finding the wreck.
“Her iron hull construction methods represented some of the earliest examples of that type of hull construction for ocean-going ships known to exist.
“Similarly, her propulsion machinery is unique in that it represents one of several engine designs that were tried before precedents were set on ocean steamship machinery.
“Le Lyonnais’ direct-acting horizontal engine predates inverted compound engines, which became the norm shortly thereafter,” says Takakjian.
The ‘hit-and-run’ sinking
Le Lyonnais was on her first return voyage to France when on 2 November, 1856 she collided with the US barque Adriatic, which was sailing south from Maine to Georgia. The liner was carrying a number of passengers from prominent New York and Boston families.
Adriatic was damaged but able to reach port in Massachusetts for repairs. Her captain assumed that Le Lyonnais was intact because she had maintained her course, and did not report the incident.
However, the small hole in the hull of Le Lyonnais would eventually allow in enough seawater to overwhelm the ship, and she sank days later.
Most of those onboard are presumed to have had time to get away in the lifeboats when the ship finally went down, but only 18 people were eventually rescued, having spent a week at sea. The disaster is referred to in the novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne.
Further out to sea
Atlantic Wreck Salvage partners Jennifer Sellitti and Joe Mazraani, both criminal defence lawyers by trade, had been working with Takakjian since 2016 to locate the wreck, after becoming intrigued by the unusual story of the collision.
Despite contemporary newspaper accounts indicating that Le Lyonnais had finally gone down south-east of the Nantucket Shoals, the wreck researchers found that survivor accounts and court documents were increasingly pointing them further out to sea, to the Georges Banks.
The wreck-site was one of several potential marks side-scanned by a discovery team a year ago, and the divers returned this August to investigate them.
Finding matches
Mazraani, Andrew Donn, Tom Packer and Tim Whitehead dived the wreck 13 times to take measurements, video and stills. After reviewing the data topside, they were able to make a preliminary identification based on the ship’s size, location, iron plating, portholes and steam engine.
“One of the large cylinder heads pointed horizontally and not very high off the sand,” said Mazraani. He and Packer were able to confirm that it measured 145cm – “the exact size for the cylinders on Le Lyonnais’ engine”.
On a subsequent dive he also spotted a timber deadeye, used for rigging and indicating that this had been a ship equipped for both sail and steam. “Those clues, with the location, sonar data and measurements further solidified that we were diving the lost French liner.”
Follow-up plans
The team now plan to devote more time to exploring and fully documenting the wreck. “We will return to the wreck-site as soon as possible,” Jennifer Sellitti told Divernet.
“Our August 2024 expedition focused on identifying the wreck. Subsequent dives will focus on mapping and documenting the wreck-site, as well as salvaging artefacts.
“The North Atlantic is inhospitable to shipwrecks. Storms, currents and fishing-gear can bury wrecks and rip them apart. This makes it critical to document and salvage what we can before even more time passes.”
Atlantic Wreck Salvage have discovered a number of wrecks, including U-550, the last German WW2 U-boat known to rest in diveable North Atlantic waters.
Out next February will be Sellitti’s hardback book The Adriatic Affair: A Maritime Hit-And-Run Off The Coast Of Nantucket, now being extended to include a chapter containing a detailed description and photographs of the wreck itself.
Also on Divernet: ANDREA DORIA WRECK SHOWS ITS AGE AT 60, ANDREA DORIA’S FOGHORN SOUNDS AGAIN
