from the Deepwater Horizon accident is threatening access to historical shipwrecks.

 

“If this oil congeals on the bottom, it will be dangerous for scuba divers to go down there and explore,” Steven Anthony, president of the Maritime Archaeological and Historical Society, told the Associated Press. “The spill will stop investigations; it will put a chill, a halt on (underwater) operations.”

 

Among the remains are the “Mica Wreck” and the “Mardi Gras Wreck,” both of which were 19th century vessels. The Mica was a double-masted schooner that sank sometime before 1850, while the Mardi Gras may have been a gun runner or British trader during the War of 1812, according to experts at Texas A&M University.

 

Also sitting on the ocean floor, off the coast of Louisiana, is a World War II German submarine (the U-166) which was sunk in 1942 by the U.S. Navy after it attacked a merchant vessel in the gulf.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

From Galleons to U-Boat Victims, Ghostly Shipwrecks of Gulf Risk Being Caked in Sinking Oil (by Cain Burdeau, Associated Press)

Historic Shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico (Department of the Interior)

ROV Investigations of the DKM U-166 Shipwreck Site to Document the Archeological and Biological Aspects of the Wreck Site (by C & C Technologies Survey Services) (pdf)