A nineteenth century gunrunner that sank off the coast of South Carolina has been discovered and it may contain sunken treasure, according to the Huffington Post.
The ship has been positively identified as the S.S. Ozama, a ship that had quite an interesting history that involved more than a fair share of smuggling and illegal operations, according to NBC Discovery News.
"We have positively identified the vessel through the engine type, length, width, type of decking, and other construction features as well as its location, which matches perfectly with historical accounts," Lee Spence, an underwater archaeologist, said.
Spence has found historical shipwrecks in the past including the Civil War era submarine the H.L. Hunley and the S.S. Georgiana. The Ozama was wrecked in 1894 but Spence says that it is "in surprisingly good condition with most of the ship relatively intact and sitting upright," according to NBC Discovery News.
"The vessel made a number of trips to Panama and other ports in the Caribbean, sailing into turbulent times," Spence said. "Her colorful history is packed with events such as a mutiny and extensive gun and money smuggling to Haiti."
The ship sunk in the winter of 1894 when it struck on Cape Romaine shoals and the engine department was breached.
"The water quickly filled the fire rooms, rendering the engines useless," The New York Times reported. "The steamer floated off the shoals shortly after striking, and at 2 a.m. sank in six-and-a-half fathoms of water."
The ship was listed as having been travelling in ballast, which means without cargo. This would have made attempts at salvaging the ship not worth the effort. Once Spence learned the history of the ship he started to suspect that it may not be empty after all.
"Ships reporting themselves as travelling in ballast, often carried money and even other cargo," Spence said. "When you are smuggling, the smuggled cargo often isn't listed or is intentionally miss-listed."
Given the ship's history of smuggling and the fact that the wreck is mostly intact Spence is hoping that there may be gold still lying in the Ozama.
"Whatever is still there, we have good reason to believe at least some of it will be intact, as I have already brought up some unbroken china," Spence said. "As you might guess, I am hoping to find gold, and gold should not only be intact, it should still be shiny."
