The 19th century saw many advances in ship building technology
including steam power and iron hulls. Along the
coastal waters of the Gulf of Mexico some of the first merchant steamships were
introduced in the 1830s by Charles Morgan, a New York businessman.
Of the 117 steamships owned by Morgan or his
corporate enterprises between 1833 and 1885, the wrecks of four have been
discovered in the Gulf of Mexico or contiguous waters. One
of these, the Mary,
was recorded by archaeologists off Aransas Pass, Texas, in 1995. The other
three, the New York,
the Josephine,
and the
Hatteras,
were documented by MMS marine archaeologists. Taken
together, these vessels represent the span of steamships employed by the Morgan
Line and document the changing technology of steam navigation in the United
States. Below is a summary of three of these
unique vessels.
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New York
Constructed in 1837, the New York operated as a steam packet primarily
along the New Orleans, LA, to Galveston, TX, route from 1839 until its demise in
1846. Unlike most of Morgan’s vessels, the
New York was wooden-hulled. The vessel was registered at 365-tons, 160.5’
long by 22.5’ wide, with a 10.5’ depth of hold. The
New York was chartered to transport troops to the U.S. army depot at
Brazos St. Iago in south Texas on April 29, 1846, and completed several other
military charters until her life ended in a hurricane on September 7, 1846.
Seventeen of her passengers and crew, including
five children, drowned.
After a five-year search, the wreck of the New York was located by a
south Louisiana oilfield worker and amateur diver. Hoping
to find gold and silver, which had been reported lost on the vessel, a Louisiana
salvage company was contracted to remove the sand from the hull.
Fortunately, the wreck's discoverer had an
appreciation of the historical importance of the wreck and resisted the
recommendation of his salvage contractor to clamshell the site.
Ultimately, a large area of the hull was
exposed, but almost no artifacts were recovered, no doubt due to the violence of
the wreck event. What few items were recovered,
however, helped to secure the date of the wreck: a mortising machine patented in
1836, an 1827 King George IV gold sovereign, and two 1843 U.S. half dollars.
In 1997, the discovery of the wreck of the New York came to the
attention of MMS marine archaeologists. During the summers of 1997 and 1998, the
MMS scientific dive team made a brief reconnaissance of the site. In addition to
diving, the MMS conducted a magnetometer survey of the area to determine site
size and limits in order to preserve the wreck from any possible disturbance
from oil and gas activities. The MMS investigation was intended to confirm the
identification of the vessel and to assess the size of the wreck scatter.
The MMS is taking an active role in encouraging salvers to preserve and
record the historical and archaeological data contained in wrecks on the Federal
OCS. In this way, both the interests of the
salvers and the American people can be protected.
Mary (41NU264)
Located along the channel entrance near the town of Port Aransas, Texas, the
remains of the iron-hull steamship Mary were first identified by marine
archaeologists in 1989. As part of a channel improvement project, permitted by
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District, data recovery was
conducted on the vessel in 1993. The Mary was completed in 1866 by the
Harlan and Hollingsworth Company of Wilmington, Delaware, and operated along the
Gulf coast from 1866 to 1876. On November 30, 1876, the Mary ran aground
at Aransas Pass. Her passengers and crew survived, but the vessel and her cargo
were a total loss, estimated at over $100,000. As with many of the later
steamships of the Morgan Line, the Mary included a vertical walking beam
engine.
Josephine
(22HR843)
During the summers of 1997 and 1999, MMS divers conducted non-destructive
surveys of the remains of a sidewheel steamship that lies about six miles off
the Barrier Islands of Mississippi. Data collected from the site, and subsequent
research, identified the vessel as the remains of the 19th century
merchant steamship Josephine. The vessel was part of a fleet of ships
owned and operated by Charles Morgan’s Louisiana and Texas Railroad and
Steamship Company. Research on this vessel has led to its listing on the
National Register of Historic Places, and also has resulted in the development
of an instructional packet with a
series of lesson plans geared toward students at the junior high level.
Construction of the Josephine was completed in 1867. Shortly
thereafter, the vessel was brought to New Orleans and began operation along the
New Orleans to Galveston route for the Morgan steamship company. The vessel made
regular passage along this route twice weekly. In January, 1881 she was
transferred to the New Orleans to Cuba route. On her initial return voyage from
Cuba her iron-hull sprung a leak which eventually caused the ship to founder. Of
the three Morgan line vessels discussed on this page, the Josephine is
the most intact and provides the best opportunity for further research on these
unique sidewheel steamships.
Further Reading:
Ball, Dave 2001 Historic Shipwrecks of the Gulf of
Mexico: A Teacher’s Resource. U.S. Department
of the Interior, Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS Region.
Baughman, James P. 1968. Charles Morgan and the Development of Southern
Transportation. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville.
Dayton, Fred E. and John W. Adams. 1970. Steamboat Days. Frederick
A. Stokes Company, New York.
Irion, Jack B. 1989. Underwater Archaeological Investigations, Ship
Island Pass, Gulfport Harbor, Mississippi, Gulf Islands National Seashore.
Submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District. GAI
Consultants, Pittsburgh.
Irion, Jack B., and Ball, David A., "The
New York and the Josephine: Two Steamships of the Charles Morgan Line." The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology (2001) 30.1:48-56.
Pearson, Charles E. and Joe J. Simmons. 1995. Underwater Archaeology of
the Wreck of the Steamship Mary (41NU252) and Assessment of Seven
Anomalies, Corpus Christi Entrance Channel, Nueces County, Texas. Prepared
for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District. Coastal Environments,
Baton Rouge.
Ships of Exploration |
19th Century Steamships |
Civil War Shipwrecks
World War II Shipwrecks |
Deepwater Shipwrecks