Mystic Seaport plays role in discovery of sunken whaling ship
Mystic — Research provided by Mystic Seaport Museum has helped play a role in the recent discovery of the only wreck ever found of a whaling ship in the Gulf of Mexico.
While 19th-century ships hunted whales in the Indian, Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans, whaling was rare in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, according to Paul O'Pecko, the museum's vice president of research collections.
The discovery has likely made the wreck of the brig Industry eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places due to its link with its homeport of Westport, Mass., a historic whaling village. The Industry sank in June 1836.
The wreck site, located in 6,000 feet of water about 70 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River, was first spotted in 2011 when the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management was conducting a side-scan sonar survey for an oil lease in the gulf. In 2017 an underwater vehicle was able to photograph the wreck and found it had the archaeological characteristics of a whaling vessel from the first half of the 19th century, such as the distinctive tryworks used to boil whale fat into oil.
Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel Okeanos Explorer mapped and photographed the wreck site. Artifacts such as an anchor, liquor bottles, hawse pipes, a cast-iron stove and the tryworks were all found. A video of the wreck site can be seen at bit.ly/industrywreck.
According to the report chronicling its discovery and extensive research, the group that found the ship states its data suggests a wreck of a whaling vessel from the first half of the 19th century and that only one whaling vessel has ever been reported lost in the Gulf of Mexico: the Industry.
The discovery was a joint effort by maritime archeologists Scott Sorset, Michael Brennan and James P. Delgado, the latter of whom once headed NOAA's maritime heritage program; SEARCH Inc., a cultural resources and archaeological firm, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
O'Pecko said he provided Delgado, a longtime colleague, with documents from the time period that provided additional context about the other types of maritime business going on in the Gulf of Mexico at the time, such as what types of vessels were used in the coasting trade and what they might be carrying.
O'Pecko also spent time with Delgado on Mystic Seaport's Charles W. Morgan, the world's last surviving wooden whaling ship, to document its trypots, the brickworks holding the pots and other details of the ship to help identify the wreck in the Gulf of Mexico as a whaler. The detailed report about the discovery includes many references to Mystic Seaport and photos of the Morgan's tryworks.
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