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British whaling ship wreck discovered
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A team of scientists recently found the oldest wreckage of a whaling vessel in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, shedding further light on the major significance of 19th-century whaling heritage in this region.
About 170 years ago, British whaling ship Gledstanes broke up on the reef of Kure Atoll, where a team of scientists from NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries found it on their day's first dive, halfway into a month long expedition to discover shipwrecks in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, the largest Marine Protected Area in the world. |
Near the end of the dive, the team found a pile of iron ballast and some chain that led into the reef where more artifacts were scattered, including four massive anchors, cannons, cannon balls and a trypot - a cauldron used to melt whale blubber into oil. Gledstanes is the fourth whaling ship found in the national monument.
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