A team of researchers recently discovered a historic shipwreck from a ship that was built in 1855 before sinking just a year after in 1856.
The historic steamship “Le Lyonnais” was discovered by the the Atlantic Wreck Salvage, which owns the “D/V Tenacious” vessel. The group of researchers recently found the steamship off the coast of Massachusetts.
Announcing the discovery of the shipwreck in a post on Facebook last week, Atlantic Wreck Salvage said, “We are thrilled to announce the discovery of the 1856 transatlantic passenger steamship Le Lyonnais. The ship collided with the American sailing vessel Adriatic off the Coast of Nantucket on November 2, 1856. One-hundred-and-fourteen of Le Lyonnais’ 132 passengers and crew died in the disaster.”
According to Fox News, “Le Lyonnais” was constructed in 1855 but sank on its first return voyage to Le Havre, France, on November 2, 1856. The outlet reported that after colliding with the “Adriatic,” the ship sustained a small hole that eventually caused it to sink days after the initial collision.
Jennifer Sellitti, the marking director for Atlantic Wreck Salvage and one of the primary crew members on the “D/V Tenacious,” told Fox News it was “difficult to explain” the feeling of the historic discovery after she and her partner Joe Mazraani had searched for the shipwreck for eight years.
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“For the team, the feeling was a mixture of relief and joy, but there was also a sense of ‘What’s next?'” she told Fox News. “For me, personally, I have spent so long trying to learn and tell the stories of the people who sailed aboard ‘Le Lyonnais’ that finding her felt like closure – like a way to help those who died so long ago to finally rest in peace.”
Sellitti told Fox News that she had always been confident that the shipwreck still existed; however, she had doubts regarding whether she and the rest of her team would ever be able to locate it.
“The North Atlantic is notoriously brutal to shipwrecks,” Sellitti said. “Storms, currents, shifting sands, and fishing gear can rip these wrecks apart. Many old wrecks are completely buried by the ocean over time.”
While Sellitti acknowledged that the ship had “not survived well” over the years, she told Fox News that she is looking forward to documenting the shipwreck over the next several years.
Emphasizing the ship’s connection to history, Sellitti said, “Shipwrecks are remnants of bygone eras. They are frozen moments in time that connect us to history in a way that stories alone cannot.”
