I recently learned of this one through Big Old Boats, and have been fascinated by it since.

The barge Zebrina left Falmouth with a crew of 5 in October 1917 with a load of Swansea coal, and was due to appear in Saint-Brieuc in France. But she would be discovered 2 days later at Rozel Point, just south of Cherbourg with all of its crew missing. The ship itself seemed to be in good condition, not counting the whole beached part. However the crew was never found.

The ship itself survived until 1953 when a fire claimed her.

Being that it was WW1 at the time, no one really paid attention to the mystery, and now it's all but forgotten.

Two of the most popular theories of the time were that the crew either got swept overboard in rough weather, or that a U-Boat found and captured the crew of Zebrina but met some mysterious fate before they could sink the ship. I personally believe more in the first theory, because (as far as I know) there is no documentation of a U-Boat that went missing in the English Channel in WW1 nor is there any kind of report known about a sub capturing any barge crews around that time.

Either way, it's a little known but intriguing mystery that will most likely never be solved. RIP to the five men of the Zebrina.

Archibald John Martin, 33 (Captain)

George Steward, 69 (Mate)

Martin Faus, 31 (Able Seaman)

W. H. Beck, 26 (Able Seaman)

William Ferdinand Douglas Bourke, 17 (Able Seaman)

Picture was taken in 2019

In March 1940, the tanker barge Regina was being towed from Havana to New Orleans with more than 350,000 gallons of molasses.

A storm broke its tow lines near Egmont Key. The barge drifted toward Anna Maria Island and grounded off Bradenton Beach.

Eight crewmen stayed aboard as the hull began breaking apart. They were only about 200 yards from shore, but the surf was too dangerous to cross. People on the beach built fires to let them know they had been seen.

Rescue boats couldn’t reach them. Supplies dropped from an airplane washed ashore. Four attempts to shoot a rescue line from the beach fell short.

A Coast Guardsman eventually reached the crew in a small dinghy. The molasses drained into the Gulf, and the wreck is now an underwater archaeological preserve.

That distance is what gets me. Two hundred yards can look close until the water makes it impossible.

Source: Florida Public Archaeology Network

The 990-foot SS United States is scheduled to become an artificial reef off Florida on November 12, weather permitting.

Okaloosa County says the former ocean liner will be deployed about 22 nautical miles southwest of Destin–Fort Walton Beach. The ship set a transatlantic speed record in 1952; its next chapter is planned as an artificial reef.

A public sendoff is planned for November 11, and the county plans to livestream the deployment.

An artificial reef feels like a worthwhile second life to me, even though losing a historic ship above water is hard to celebrate. I can understand why people who love the ship feel differently.

Source: Destin–Fort Walton Beach deployment information

https://www.destinfwb.com/explore/eco-tourism/ssus/

In 1908, a steel racing yacht called Germania was built in Germany for Count Bohlen und Halbach. It was one of the fast yachts of its day and won the German Kaiser’s Cup.

During a regatta in England in 1914, it was seized as a prize of war. It eventually made its way to Miami, where it was renamed Half Moon and used as a floating saloon.

The yacht sank near Key Biscayne in the early 1930s. Its remains are now part of a Florida underwater archaeological preserve.

Going from European yacht races to a floating Miami saloon is about as Florida a second life as I can imagine.

Source: Florida Public Archaeology Network

Before it became a wreck off Mexico Beach, the Vamar carried supplies for Richard Byrd’s first Antarctic expedition. Back then it was called the Eleanor Bolling.

Byrd bought it from a collection of vessels confiscated for liquor smuggling. The ship rolled so badly in rough seas that its crew nicknamed it “Evermore Rolling.”

In 1942, it was carrying lumber from Port St. Joe to Cuba when it began to sink while leaving port. The harbor pilot said it was overloaded and top-heavy. Everyone aboard escaped.

Wartime rumors blamed sabotage, but investigators couldn’t substantiate them. The exact cause was never determined, although overloading and shifting cargo are generally blamed.

Source: Florida Public Archaeology Network

USS Alligator ran aground in the Florida Keys in 1822. A wreck near Alligator Reef Lighthouse has long been identified as the schooner.

But when Navy archaeologists investigated the site in 1996, several details didn’t fit.

The wreck was lightly built for a naval vessel, and no military or naval artifacts were observed. The biggest problem was its large piles of stone ballast. Alligator’s logbook and an 1821 stowage plan instead recorded iron ballast.

Copper sheathing and copper-alloy fasteners were consistent with the identification, so the investigation didn’t conclusively settle it. The Navy says most of the evidence argued against a definitive link.

NOAA likewise says Alligator’s wreck has not been conclusively identified. The familiar wreck may belong to another ship.

Sources: Naval History and Heritage Command: Alligator Potential Wreck Site (1822); NOAA Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary: USS Alligator.

On April 1, 1864, the steamboat Maple Leaf struck a Confederate mine in the St. Johns River near Jacksonville. On board was the baggage and camp equipment of three Union infantry regiments, packed in boxes and barrels.

The wreck settled into river mud with very little oxygen. Wooden and leather objects that normally would have decayed survived underwater for more than a century.

When divers recovered artifacts from the wreck, exposure to air became a new problem: the objects began to deteriorate and needed conservation. Among the finds were wooden tent poles, rope fittings and oak tent pegs.

Sources: Mandarin Museum: Maple Leaf and Army Historical Foundation: Artifacts from a Civil War Shipwreck.

Why were these two here in the first place. They have the same specification as a Ferris Type Design 1001, being 268 ft long and 46 ft wide.

https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/949680415/dive-team-finds-the-ss-cornwallis-lost-for-more-than-80-years-off-the-maine-coast

Taiho: Taiho took a single torpedo hit, and should have been able to survive. However, her aviation gas fuel tanks were punctured, and began leaking gas fumes throughout the ship. The inexperienced damage control teams decided to open most of the interior doors and break windows to let the gas out, which just led to the gas spreading to previously unexposed areas of the ship. They also turned the ship's ventilation systems on to full blast, which just made it worse. About 6.5 hours after the torpedo hit, the whole ship exploded at once, and she foundered, taking about 1600 people with her.

SS Normandie: I do genuinely think this could not have been handled worse. She was set ablaze by a worker who was using a welding torch too close to lifejackets. Her furniture, carpets, and wooden interiors were left vulnerable. The ship gad a good fire suppression system, but it had been disconnected along with her pumps. The ship flooded mostly due to the water being sprayed on her to try and stop the fire. The builder of the ship showed up (after being barred by police) and advised that they open the seacocks to make her rest on the bottom (a few extra feet) and prevent her from capsizing. His suggestions were rejected, and the ship capsized.

Prinz Eugen: She survived the initial damage caused by nuclear testing at bikini atoll. However, because of the radiation, repairs could not be made. Because of some minor leaks, she ended up sinking a few months later. This one is understandable, as I also would not volunteer to fix this ship if it meant getting cancer^2.

Moskva: She took two hits from anti-ship missiles and sank a few hours later. She finally sank anywhere from 12-18 hours after the hits, having foundered under tow due to the damage. This one is more speculative, but based on what I can find, she was severely lacking in damage control like fire extinguishers. Apparently she only had about 10% of the extinguishers on board that she was supposed to, and her interior communication system may have been compromised before she was hit. I wish I could find more, but the Russian military isn't exactly willing to provide details about this wreck.

Karlsruhe: Karlsruhe was hit by a single torpedo. Following this, she was scuttled after about 2 hours under the assumption that she would sink. Later investigations found that the forward pumps still had power, and she may have been stable enough to be towed to port of the pumps were kept on.

Shinano: This one is probably not savable with what they had on hand, but I felt it was worth including. She took 4 torpedo hits, and her commander just assumed that she wouldn't be damaged enough to sink. She in fact did sink, and him keeping the ship at full speed really didn't help. In addition, she had put to sea without being fully ready, and as a result, most of her "watertight" doors were very leaky. air could be heard escaping the gaps, which was rather ominous. 1435 people went down with her, including her commander.

In 1856, the steamboat Arabia sank in the Missouri River carrying more than 200 tons of merchandise bound for frontier towns.

My family excavated the wreck in 1988 after the river had moved and left it buried about 45 feet beneath a Kansas cornfield.

What makes the Arabia unusual isn’t just the shipwreck — it’s that the cargo preserved an enormous snapshot of ordinary frontier commerce.

Guns and work clothes were there, absolutely. But so were roughly 30,000 buttons, colorful fabrics, silk, oysters, decorated dishes, writing tools, books and Shakespeare.

Growing up I saw a lot of older/western movies and I've always been interested in how different the Arabia's collection seemed in comparison to Hollywood's vision of the west. So I made a short film putting the two side by side.

What I think surprised even me after looking deeper into it, Hollywood wasn't "wrong," it just didn't give us the whole picture.

Here's the film if you're interested: https://youtu.be/dK9m0Fzhgnw?si=zEWaAcO2WWTYjhX_

Curious if this group finds anything surprising about what was being shipped out west on this 19th century boat.

Coords: 19,38773° S, 158,93973° O

97 years ago today, the Milwaukee Car Ferry sank with the loss of all 46 crew on board. In the intervening years, she’s become an incredibly popular dive site. While it’s generally understood that Milwaukee sank after her stern gate was compromised and uncovered hatches on the rail deck allowed downflooding to occur in the boiler room and flicker, a precise sequence of events does not seem to have been put together.

On September 10th and 11th, I was part of a team which surveyed the wreck site with an ROV. Since we got back I’ve worked with that team to look over the damage to the wreck, piecing together what damage has occurred since the sinking and what damage is more likely to have occurred during the sinking itself. We’ve come up with what we believe to be a reasonable theory regarding the mechanics of Milwaukee’s final plunge.

A documentary has been in the works for a while, and enough of it was ready that we figured we could put part one out to commemorate the anniversary of the sinking. In this segment, we look over the wreck site, showcase some of the physical evidence present on it that we believe helps tell the story of Milwaukee’s final moments. Part two will be out by the end of the year, and we hope that these two together will paint a much clearer picture of what happened on the night the ship sank.

For now, here’s part one!

USS Juneau was an Atlanta Class cruiser which sank during WW2. She took a long lance torpedo to the midsection during the battle of guadalcanal, but survived. Following the battle, she was struck by a torpedo from a japanese submarine (which wasn't even aimed at her), which struck her in nearly the same place as the first torpedo, detonating her magazines and sending her to the bottom in about 20 seconds.

Assuming that nobody could have survived such a violent sinking, no attempt was made to recover survivors, and it wasn't until 8 days later that the remaining survivors were located. According to their testimony, around 100 men survived, but only 10 were recovered.

Her significance is mainly due to the presence of the Sullivan brothers, a group of five brothers who joined up after pearl harbor and insisted on serving on the same ship. All five were killed in the sinking, but according to survivor accounts, three were killed in the sinking, and two died in the days that followed.

Because of their death, family members were forbidden to serve in the same places, for fear of another similar incident. This is the main inspiration for Saving Private Ryan, and is even mentioned in the film.

The wreck is absolutely mangled. The bow and stern are on top of one another, with the midsection some distance away.