Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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Divers recovering artifacts off the steamship Pulaski have made an eerie find that gives credence to eyewitness accounts of the night the ship sank in 1838, taking some of the nation's richest people to the bottom of the Atlantic.
A mysterious "grape-fruit-sized" encrustation found at the site off North Carolina turned out to be a heavily decorated solid gold pocket watch attached to a gold chain.
However, what has historians buzzing is the fact that the clock's hands are frozen at 11:05.
That's 5 minutes after the time witnesses say the ship's boilers exploded on the night of June 14, 1838. The dramatic sinking, often referred to as "The Titanic of its time," occurred 180 years ago this month.
....The sinking of the Pulaski continues to intrigue historians for countless reasons, including the fact that its ill-fated passengers were then among the wealthiest people in the eastern United States.
Nearly half the 200 people on board died, while headed from Savannah, Georgia, to Baltimore, Maryland, according to the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Witness accounts say the starboard boiler exploded at about 11 p.m., setting off a grisly chain reaction of death that saw people thrown overboard and drowned, scalded to death, and cut by flying debris, according state historians. Survivors floated up to four days on chunks of the wreck before being rescued, say historians.
For the past 180 years, the location of the wreck was among the big mysteries.
The 1838 shipwreck was 'the Titanic of its time.' Divers just made an eerie discovery.
And here is an account
Full text of "The Loss of the Steamer Pulaski"
That watch they found looks pretty cool.
A mysterious "grape-fruit-sized" encrustation found at the site off North Carolina turned out to be a heavily decorated solid gold pocket watch attached to a gold chain.
However, what has historians buzzing is the fact that the clock's hands are frozen at 11:05.
That's 5 minutes after the time witnesses say the ship's boilers exploded on the night of June 14, 1838. The dramatic sinking, often referred to as "The Titanic of its time," occurred 180 years ago this month.
....The sinking of the Pulaski continues to intrigue historians for countless reasons, including the fact that its ill-fated passengers were then among the wealthiest people in the eastern United States.
Nearly half the 200 people on board died, while headed from Savannah, Georgia, to Baltimore, Maryland, according to the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Witness accounts say the starboard boiler exploded at about 11 p.m., setting off a grisly chain reaction of death that saw people thrown overboard and drowned, scalded to death, and cut by flying debris, according state historians. Survivors floated up to four days on chunks of the wreck before being rescued, say historians.
For the past 180 years, the location of the wreck was among the big mysteries.
The 1838 shipwreck was 'the Titanic of its time.' Divers just made an eerie discovery.
And here is an account
Full text of "The Loss of the Steamer Pulaski"
That watch they found looks pretty cool.
