A ship that disappeared 128 years ago was found at the bottom of the lake (6 photos + 1 video)

While exploring Lake Huron in North America, a documentary team found a ship that disappeared about 128 years ago. As it turned out, they came across the ship "Africa", built in 1874, and sank in 1895.





American documentarians, spouses Yvonne Drebert and Zach Melnik, decided to explore the bottom of Lake Huron in North America - and did not expect to make such a significant find. The team examined the bottom with a high-tech device with a high-resolution camera system, which is controlled remotely. On the way, they unexpectedly came across a sunken ship. It turned out to be the ship "Africa", built in 1874 and sank two decades later - in 1895. During the fateful voyage, it was traveling from the American state of Ohio to the Canadian province of Ontario, and towing the Severn barge loaded with coal.



During a heavy snowstorm, the towing cable connecting the ships broke and the Severn ran aground. His crew was saved. However, the ship "Africa" disappeared, and 11 members of its crew were never found. But the documentary team managed to revive his memory. According to Yvonne Drebert, at the time of the discovery, their research apparatus was at a depth of about 90 meters - when they saw the outline, they first thought that there was a pile of stones in front of them - but not a sunken ship. The whole team was pleasantly shocked by the discovery.





The boat was completely covered in quagga mussels, an invasive species of mussel. Although these mussels pose a danger to sunken ships, they also clear plankton from the water around them, allowing researchers to directly detect the ships.

“There are so many quaggas in the Great Lakes that the lakes are three times cleaner than they were before they appeared. It is thanks to quaggas that we can see a sunken ship at a depth of almost 100 meters without additional lighting. However, mussels complicate the process of identifying ships,” say scientists .



The team was able to identify this vessel together with a local historian and maritime archaeologist. As a result of the second dive of the apparatus, it was established that the length, width and height of the sunken ship corresponded to the dimensions of the ship "Africa". In addition, around the ship there was coal, which the ship transported during its last voyage. Footage of the discovery will be included in the couple's documentary.