Explorers may have finally found the wreckage of an 1838 steamboat that was ferrying notables of the day and exploded off the coast of North Carolina.
The Pulaski was ferrying politicians such as William B Rochester, a politician and the son of the New York city’s namesake, and members of the Lamar family, a wealthy Southern dynasty, from Savannah, Georgia to Baltimore, Maryland in the spring of 1838. The former and at least five of the latter died. The ship made a stop – its last landfall – in Charleston, South Carolina.
An account of the ship’s tragic end by a Mrs Hugh McLeod reads: ‘The passengers were from the elite of [Savannah].
‘Sojourners returning to their distant homes, and others from farther South and West, assembled on the deck, presenting a picture of unusual brightness; so many happy faces animated by hope and expectation.
‘[The Pulaski] inspired confidence. She appeared so strong, and looked so comfortable.’
While traveling down the Eastern Seaboard one night in June, it exploded at around 11pm. Of the 200 passengers and crew on board, around 100 are believed to have died.
A diving team of explorers may have found the wreckage of an 1838 steamboat that exploded off the coast of North Carolina in 1838
Valuables found include early American and Spanish coins. The exploration team hopes to find evidence that can definitively confirm the wreckage is in fact the Pulaski
The Pulaski, a steamboat, was ferrying elite Southerners from Savannah, Georgia to Baltimore, Maryland when it crashed. Around 100 of the 200 passengers and crew on board died
A survivor’s account in the Wilmington Advertiser tells of ‘the wailing of the hopeless beings who were floating around in every direction, upon pieces of the wreck, to seek land’.
McLeod’s account, compiled from survivor’s recollections, reads: ‘The boat parted in two with a tremendous crash, and the bow and stern rose somewhat out of the water, but the latter again continued to sink until the water reached the promenade deck, when it separated into two parts, upset and precipitated all on it into the water.’
The North Carolina Standard deemed the disaster to be ‘the most painful catastrophe that has ever occurred on upon the American coast’ up to that point.
The shipwreck was blamed on a starboard boiler explosion; accounts from the day blamed the steamboat’s engineers.
Survivors then floated in rafts days before finally making landfall and reuniting with family and friends.
The North Carolina Standard deemed the disaster to be ‘the most painful catastrophe that has ever occurred on upon the American coast’. Divers are pictured exploring the wreckage
If the ship’s bell or numbering on its boilers are found, then whether or not the ship is in fact the Pulaski could be conclusively proven
Now two groups – Blue Water Ventures International and Endurance Exploration – are working to recover coins and other valuables from a wreckage site 40 miles off the coast of North Carolina.
The coins that have been found by the operation’s divers are dated to no later than 1836.
They include early United States silver issues and Spanish silver coins from the late 1700s.
‘We are looking forward to these next months, as our team continues to recover this shipwreck, bringing pieces of our past back to the present,’ Keith Webb, the President of BWVI, said in a press release.
The evidence has not yet confirmed outright that the wreckage is in fact the Pulaski. But the facts that the coinage found on the boat predates 1838 and that analysis of the wreckage corroborates a boiler explosion are seen as promising by the exploration team.
‘Finding the Pulaski is a big deal,’ Doctor Joseph Schwarzer of the North Carolina Maritime Museums told the Charlotte Observer. ‘Saying something was the “Titanic of its time” is an overworked metaphor….But I will say it’s one of the more significant disasters in American maritime history.’
Other notable objects found include a men’s razor, a candlestick holder and a turkey platter, per the Observer.
Evidence that could confirm the wreckage is in fact the Pulaski include the ship’s bell and numbering on its boilers – neither of which have been found.
‘Saying something was the “Titanic of its time” is an overworked metaphor….But I will say it’s one of the more significant disasters in American maritime history,’ Doctor Joseph Schwarzer of the North Carolina Maritime Museums told the Charlotte Observer in reference to the Pulaski