Posted on 06/17/2017 7:58:47 AM PDT by MtnClimber
One hundred years ago this week, the Coast Guard cutter McCulloch, a world-traveled vessel stationed in San Francisco, collided with a passenger ship in the fog and sank to the ocean floor off the coast of Southern California. For almost a century, the ship was lost.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that the McCulloch had been found, four miles off Pt. Conception, west of Santa Barbara.
Searching in the Deep
Its been decades in the works, says Robert Schwemmer, the West Coast Regional Maritime Heritage Coordinator for NOAA. To put the first eyes on the ship on the eve of its 100-year anniversary was very moving.
A historian and archeologist, Schwemmer has been studying the McCulloch for three decades and always hoped to find the remains.
In 2013, maritime historian and shipwreck researcher Gary Fabian located a mass on the ocean floor using sonar. Suspecting that it might be the lost wreck, Fabian contacted Schwemmer with his hunch.
Years later, Schwemmer took the research vessel Shearwater over the potential wreck site. Using sonar, he saw high-relief images of the sea floor and a mass that could potentially be a wreck but more importantly, he saw lots of fish.
Fish are an indicator of habitat, and shipwrecks are great habitat, he said......
Finally, in October 2016, Schwemmer, along with a NOAA research team and a local branch of the Coast Guard, devoted an annual reconnaissance cruise to looking for the McCulloch......
When the ROV footage revealed a 14-foot bronze torpedo launcher mounted on the bow of the vessel a feature unique to the McCulloch Schwemmer was sure that the long-lost cutter was found.
(Excerpt) Read more at ww2.kqed.org ...
Only 4 miles off shore. A long time to find it.
Yes, but how deep?
300 feet down in Davey Jones locker.
Only 4 miles off shore. A long time to find it.
**********
No treasure=nobody looking.
It’s hard to find a shipwreck before it sinks
Ain’t no gold, don’t be bold.
I worked on an albacore fishing boat in the 60s. Point Conception is often a pretty rough patch of water. One time it took us three days to round it going north.
"Come, stop crying and be a brave boy. We are bound for Davy Jones's locker and tears won't help us now."
— Edward Ardizzone, Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain
In 1927 several Navy ships hit the rocks in the same area.
The fog, currents, and wind conspire to make this rocky point a maritime hazard.
I was stationed at VAFB in the early 70’s and then transitioned to civilian employment with Boeing and Martin Marietta until leaving the area in 1985.
The sea was angry that day, like an old man at the deli...
Sable island is a notorious place off nova scotia
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Kind of funny, I’ve been reading of shipwrecks here in NC as well, headed for the OBX in August, the rates are down and so are the crowds, but still warm both water and air, the swell picks up along about then. Impressive surf, those shore break barrels. Love to watch the pros and up-and-comers surf at the Old Lighthouse jetties.
I’m a native Tarheel and have always known about the shipwrecks, even climbed around on a few as a child before the museums claimed them and took them away. But, I never paid attention to the specific histories of any of them.
Some are flat out weird, for instance the Carroll A. Deering or the Nazi U-Boats. Some are just so sad and pathetic... the Crissie Wright, good lord. I’ve been to Cape Lookout Bight, such amazingly clear aqua water, not many places on the NC coast get that, the currents tend to keep the sand churned up but not there, you can see bottom clear as a bell fifty feet down.
A nor’easter barreling down on them prompted the captain of the Crissie Wright to seek refuge there. They never made it. Temps dropped from the seventies to below freezing in an hour, winds split the main mast before they could get the sails down. Temps dropped below zero overnight. They froze to death in the rigging, massive waves breaking over the hull of the ship, run aground on the shoals.
Locals were horrified, watching them die like that, they’d lit bonfires on the beach in anticipation of survivors, but they couldn’t get out past the 12’ surf. The ship was in clear view, not far away at all. No towns there anymore, Diamond City was wiped out by a hurricane. Their livelihood was whaling.
Only human habitation there now is the park service, the lighthouse is automated. Still, a beautiful place. A little haunted, though.
Bush’s fault.
I figured the heavy bandwidth could be excused just to see a photo of this beautiful ship.
My Grandmother loved Nags Head
The great lakes are loaded with shipwrecks.
There are more lighthouses on the great lakes than the Atlantic and Pacific coasts combined
Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry Fought the war of 1812 on Lake Erie from Presque isle
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