Oceanographers of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found the remains of a ship in the San Francisco Bay which sank 125 years ago, 66 meters below the Golden Gate Bridge.
The ship is the "City of Chester", an iron and wood vessel which capsized on August 22, 1888 when a larger ship, the "Oceanic" rammed it during heavy fog conditions.
The City of Chester had just left with 106 passengers on board towards Oregon when the tragedy ocurred. Since then, the remains of the Chester had disappeared at the bottom of the sea and it wasn't until 2014 when a NOAA team and their sonar-based image-generating system.
According to The Associated Press, quoted by The Huffington Post, the new system managed to create a 3D model of the ship, which led to the clarification of one of the greatest maritime mysteries and one of the worst accidents in the San Francisco Bay.
"History is comprised of a bunch of people who never made it to the books. The same thing happened with this ship. It was filled with common people involved in a situation out of their control," said archaeologist James Delgado, director of the maritime patrimony of NOAA's National Oceanic and Maritime Sanctuary Administration, according to the NBC.
On her part, Laura Pagano, member of the NOAA team, said she was moved by the finding of the Chester, the second worst maritime accident in the San Francisco Bay.
"It was sad somehow, due to the human loss. But being able to connect with the story of a capsizing... over 100 years old was immensely satisfactory," said the researchers, quoted by The Huffington Post.
The maritime accident which cost the most human lives in the bay happened on 1878, when the SS City of Rio de Janeiro crashed against a reef, which killed the 120 people on board.
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