Scientists say a shipwreck off Patagonia is a long-lost 1850s Rhode Island whaler
Scientists investigating the remains of an old wooden ship off the cold, windy coast of far southern Argentina say it almost certainly is the Dolphin, a globe-trotting whaling ship from Warren, R.I., lost in 1859. Archaeologists ...
"I cannot say with a hundred percent certainty, but analysis of the tree rings indicates it is very likely that this is the ship," said lead author Ignacio Mundo of Argentina's Laboratory of Dendrochronology and Environmental History, IANIGLA-CONICET. Mundo and scientists at the Columbia Climate School's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory used a huge database of rings from old North American trees to show that the timbers were felled in New England and the southeastern United States just before the ship was built in 1850. Other evidence includes artifacts found near the wreck, and historical accounts from Argentina and Rhode Island. This appears to be the first time tree-ring science has been applied to identify a South American shipwreck.
"It's fascinating that people built this ship in a New England town so long ago, and it turned up on the other side of the world," said Columbia tree-ring scientist Mukund Rao, a coauthor of the study.
New England was a major player in the global whaling trade from the mid-1770s until the 1850s, when oil extracted from blubber was popular for lighting and lubrication, and whale bone was used in many small household items now made of plastic. Hundreds of Yankee ships roamed remote regions, often on voyages that lasted for years. The industry faded in the 1860s after whale populations were decimated, and petroleum came in.
The wreck of a ship thought to be the 19th-century Rhode Island whaler Dolphin at low tide off Puerto Madryn, Argentina. Credit: U. Sokolowicz
In deeper water near the wreck, next to the diver lies the heavily encrusted, upside-down remains of an iron cauldron, along with bricks from what might have been an oven used to heat blubber. Object to the right may have been a hawse pipe on the deck, where anchor chains passed through. Credit: PROAS-INAPL
Cross section of a rib made of white oak (more specifically, a first futtock). This sample had 156 rings; its last ring was dated 1845. Holes in upper part were made by wood-eating marine worms. Credit: Ignacio Mundo