More than 153 years after it was lost in a violent collision at sea, government and university maritime archaeologists have identified the wreck of the ship Robert J. Walker, a steamer that served in the U.S. Coast Survey, a predecessor agency of NOAA. Twenty sailors died when the Walker sank in rough seas in the early morning hours of June 21, 1860, ten miles off Absecon Inlet on the New Jersey coast. The sinking was the largest single loss of life in the history of the Coast Survey and its successor agency, NOAA.
This video shows the span between the ship's anchor all the way to the collapsed hull frames, moving alongside the ship exposed above the mud and sand.
