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Scuba's News Service: Wreck Edition

The Brother Jonathan is discovered on Northern California
In February this year, Donald Knight, a LA archeologists displayed midget
submarine footage and artifacts from the wreck in Crescent City.  Described
as the worst wreck in California state history, the 1865 221 foot
paddle-wheel steamer sank in a huge storm bound from San Francisco to
Victory, B. C., after striking a rock.  It was believed to have been
overloaded, and was reportedly carrying $2 million in gold, a $250,000
payroll for the US Army,  and 346 barrels of whiskey.  The ship sank
quickly with 221 deaths and 19 survivors.  Describing the footage of the
upright laying wreck one person says: "You can see the hub of the paddle
wheel on the port side, part of the seam boiler, part of the engine. It
says 'Morgan Iron Works, New York".  Knight would not say where the wreck
was found, due to the fact that both California and the federal gov will
both claim ownership of old wrecks.  Knight produced a spike from the hull,
a medicine bottle, and some china plates.  A first class Stateroom cost $75
and several prominent Californians died, including the governor of the
Washington Territories, and the SF bulletin's chief editor.  So overloaded
was she that witnesses reported it riding low in the water, and after
sinking the skipper shouted "Tell them if they had not overloaded us...this
would never have happened."  In the 1930's a fisherman hauled up 22 pounds
of hold gars, minted in 1865, but kept the location a secret to his grave.

Mark...

"Not only does our blood duplicate the salinity of the sea from which we
evolved, but just as 70% of the human body is water, so is 70% of the
Earth's surface." - Jacques-yves Cousteau

PS ..TECHDIVERS  please let me know IF I should KEEP POSTING these news
bulletins.  I have received 3 no, and 2 yes responses so far.  I am NOT
crossposting this from any other location, and I am not a server site, just
a fanatic diver.  I usually do this every 2-6 months, depending on the
volume of interesting news I collect.

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