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Wreckage of 207-year-old whaling ship discovered in Gulf of Mexico

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Posted at 3:29 PM, Mar 24, 2022
and last updated 2022-03-24 18:29:08-04

A 207-year-old whaling ship was recently discovered in the Gulf of Mexico.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a news release that the ship, called Industry, was hunting whales when on May 26, 1836, a strong storm snapped its masts and opened its hull to the sea.

The ship sunk.

Initially, no one knew what had happened to the crew, but the mystery had been solved.

Citing a June 17, 1836 article in the "Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror," the NOAA said the crew was picked up at sea by another whaling ship and taken back safely to Westport, Massachusetts.

The wreckage of the ship was discovered last month.

According to the NOAA, Industry is "the only whaling ship known to have been lost in the Gulf of Mexico out of 214 whaling voyages from the 1780s to the 1870s."