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Ship that sank in 1856 with 132 onboard discovered in Atlantic Ocean 200 miles off Massachusetts, group says
The wreck of a passenger steamship that sank in 1856 in the Atlantic Ocean has been discovered about 200 miles off the coast of Massachusetts, a New Jersey-based salvage group said.
Le Lyonnais was a trans-Atlantic steamship, built in England for a French company. The ship was meant to carry passengers and mail between England and America, and had both sails and a steam engine, according to Atlantic Wreck Salvage, the organization located the wreck.
Le Lyonnais was making its first trip from America to Europe, carrying 132 people when it collided with the Adriatic, an American sailing vessel, on Nov. 2, 1856. The ship sank due to damage sustained in the collision, and 116 of the people aboard Le Lyonnais died in the disaster.
D/V Tenacious, a dive vessel that locates, dives and salvages shipwrecks, first determined potential resting places for Le Lyonnais in 2022 and 2023. In August 2024, the vessel and a crew returned to dive the sites.
D/V Tenacious
After multiple search expeditions, the shipwreck was finally found off the coast of Massachusetts. The vessel was previously believed to have sunk southeast of Nantucket Shoals, according to the Asbury Park Press, but the D/V Tenacious team found the wreck on Georges Bank, about 200 miles from New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Multiple distinctive features helped the dive team confirm that the wreck was that of Le Lyonnais, the Asbury Park Press reported. The major clues were the discovery of the ship’s steam engine and its sail system. Divers also found iron hull plates and a screw propeller, according to a social media post by D/V Tenacious. At the time of the ship’s building, those were innovative features. Portholes were also recovered from the wreck.
Photo by Andrew Donn, D/V Tenacious
Diver Jennifer Sellitti, who wrote a book about the sinking of the Le Lyonnais, told the Asbury Park Press that the wreck is “very buried” in the sand and the site is in “very deep water” with poor visibility.
D/V Tenacious has not clarified the exact location of the wreck or said how far underwater the ship’s remains are. The team plans to return to the site to further catalog the artifacts there, the Asbury Park Press reported.
Flint, Michigan – Former President Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail Tuesday evening in his first public appearance since the second assassination attempt on his life.
“It’s a dangerous business, however, being president,” Trump said while sitting alongside Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, his former White House press secretary, at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan. “It’s a little bit dangerous. It’s, you know, they think race car driving is dangerous? No. They think bull riding, that’s pretty scary, right? No. This is a dangerous business, and we have to keep it safe.”
Trump later told the crowd he received a phone call Tuesday from Vice President Kamala Harris, calling it “very, very nice, we appreciate that.”
Speaking earlier Tuesday during a panel interview with the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia, Harris also acknowledged that she had spoken to Trump, saying that she “checked on him to see if he was OK.”
Previously Trump was blaming the rhetoric of Democrats and Harris, telling Fox News digital, “their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out.”
Joseph Guajardo, a licensed counselor from Battle Creek, Michigan, said at Trump’s town hall in Flint that he hopes the former president will focus on policy, “instead of all the name-calling.”
“I think America is above all of this horrible rhetoric that’s been spoken of about President Trump and the other side, the other side being the Democratic party,” Guajardo said.
On Sunday, members of the former president’s Secret Service detail spotted an AK-47-style rifle poking through the bushes at Trump National Golf Course while Trump was golfing there.
An agent fired at the suspect, later identified as Ryan Routh, who fled the scene. Routh was later apprehended and charged with two firearms offenses. An investigation is underway.
Despite Sunday’s events and the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, Jim Jones, an Army veteran from Davison, Michigan and Trump supporter, said he’s not worried about his safety at Trump’s campaign events.
“I think when the good Lord wants you, he’ll take you,” Jones said, adding that he thinks “the good Lord has a job for Trump to do.”
Virginia Williamson, a nurse and Trump supporter in Flint, Michigan, said she wasn’t planning to attend Trump’s town hall Tuesday until she heard about the apparent attempt on Trump’s life.
“That’s why my husband and I are here today to show support,” Williamson said.
Trump campaign officials say that they are not planning changes to his schedule after Sunday’s events. A senior campaign official told CBS News that acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe told Trump that it isn’t safe for him to golf without additional security measures. The Biden administration has asked Congress for a surge in funding for the Secret Service to help provide more resources to the agency.
Trump plans to hold a rally in Uniondale, New York, on Wednesday and a rally outdoors in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Saturday.
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