Wrapping up the recoveries time for discoveries
We have just concluded four days of intense documentation and artifact recoveries on the wreck. The range and level of preservation is amazing and we have found things we did not imagine we might have seen, like more than one telescope and preserved food inside one bottle. We also just documented a second wreck - hitherto known as a sonar target and now known to be another early 19th century wreck that may have been sailing with the first wreck. Many of the bottles seem identical. Privateer and it's prize? A warship escorting a merchantman? We do not yet know Nautilus and the ROVs are now enroute to what may be a THIRD wreck nearby. We will know more in a few hours. That is the premise and the promise of discovery.
Shipwreck 15577 - The Monterrey Wreck
The Discovery
In April 2012, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ship Okeanos Explorer conducted the first reconnaissance of shipwreck site 15577 as part of an interdisciplinary exploration mission focusing on deepwater hard-bottom habitat, naturally occurring gas seeps, and potential shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico.
