Liner arrested on seabed nearly a century after sinking
On one bleak day for shipping in the final months of World War One, a German submarine sank six vessels off the coast of New Jersey, in addition to damaging two others and leaving mines that damaged a third the next day.
Now, 96 years later, one of its sunken victims has been arrested, for a second time, while at the bottom of the sea to allow divers to recover additional items from the wreckage.
New Jersey’s Atlantic Wreck Salvage has secured an order from US District Judge Joseph Rodriguez arresting what remains of the 5,020-gt SS Carolina (built 1896).
The unarmed ship was one of the casualties of Black Sunday, as historians call the 2 June 1918 attack by U-Boat 151. Owned by New York and Porto Rico Steamship, the vessel was carrying 218 passengers, 117 crew members and a sugar cargo from San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the time of the incident.
Eight passengers and five crew died when one of the ship’s lifeboats overturned, the only deaths of that day and the first caused by U-boat activity on the Atlantic coast of the US, according to a 1920 Navy Department report.
The SS Carolina’s wreckage was discovered in 1995 by John Chatterton, who then arrested the sunken ship for the first time.
Atlantic Wreck founder Joseph Mazraani now wants to bring the ship’s bell and bridge equipment to the surface so that they can be restored to their original state and shown to the public.
“The salvage operation will require underwater cutting and hauling of massive chunks of steel and should be allowed to proceed without interference from other vessels that sporadically visit the wreck,” said Atlantic Wreck in a court filing aiming to block others from visiting the site.
Mazraani has been diving at the wreck site since 2000 and helped Chatterton recover the purser’s safe from the ship. He has discovered, restored and preserved several additional artefacts from the site, including china, silverware, brass portholes and a compass, which were shown at exhibitions and other events.
I spoke to Joe and, at this point, he is not looking to stop anyone from diving the wreck as long as no one interferes with the artifacts and/or salvage operation in which he and his crew are involved.
Off limits: the bridge equipment including but not limited to the compasses, telegraphs, helms, clocks, sextants, etc; the builder's plaque, the steam whistle, the bell and any remaining letters from the ship's names.
Please note: Portholes are still available for the taking!
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