A chance discovery in the submersible Alvin in 2015 by deep-diving colleagues from Duke University and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution revealed the faint “ghost” of a wooden shipwreck more than a hundred miles off the coast of North Carolina in several thousand feet of water. During Windows to the Deep 2018, we returned to this Blake Ridge Wreck with NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer to better understand the site and to create a detailed, three-dimensional “map” of the wreck with our colleagues from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, other agencies, universities, the private sector, and the interested public.
While the shipwreck remains unidentified, the survey of the site has begun to tell us some of its stories. While much of the wooden hull has been consumed by marine organisms, we saw uneaten traces of the hull in the bottom sediment, including the outline of frames (ribs) and planks, iron fasteners, and the chainplates that helped hold the ship’s masts in place. It is a small site, no more than 20 meters (66 feet) long, and it was likely a small vessel with a crew of some three to five persons.
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Video courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration, Windows to the Deep 2018.