USS Conestoga wreck identified after 95 years - video

On 23 March 2016, a combined research team from NOAA – the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US Navy announced that the wreck of the USS Conestoga, an American vessel, had been found and identified. The ship was found in the waters of the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary in California. The vessel went missing 95 years ago and until yesterday its exact fate remained a mystery.

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The USS Conestoga left port in San Francisco Bay on 25 March 1921 and disappeared with her entire crew of 56 sailors. Until now, the fate of the crew and the ship itself has been one of the biggest and unsolved mysteries in the US Navy. The ship’s final resting place, the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, is protected by the federal government’s National Marine Sanctuaries Act and Sunken Military Craft Act

The beginning of the story

Conestoga was built at Sparrow’s Point Shipyard in Baltimore, owned by the Maryland Steel Company, and was commissioned by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company. She entered service on November 12, 1903, and was designed to tow barges of coal. The water transportation of coal along the coast was very important because of the need for the region to maintain the continuity of rail transportation of other commodities. The work of vessels such as the Conestoga lasted almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week. After escorting one shipment to its destination, the tug would soon be on its way back with another shipment.

Conestoga incorporated into the US Navy

With the outbreak of World War I and the US joining the war effort, the US Navy purchased Conestoha in 1917. She performed her service off the Atlantic coast. In addition to escorting convoys to Bermuda and the Azores, the crew of the USS Conestoga took part in supplying individual units with essential commodities and ammunition. At the end of the war, the tug was assigned to Base 13 in the Azores. There, until the end of the war, Conestoga was in charge of towing vessels incapable of independent cruising. After the war, the next stop in her career was New York, which she reached on 26 September 1919. It was then that she received her next assignment in the harbour service of the 5th Naval District in Norfolk. On 7 January 1921, the tug and her crew arrived in San Diego to undergo a series of repairs here. On 25 March 1921 she went on another voyage, which proved to be her last, and hearing of USS Conestoga and her 56 crew members was lost for another 95 years.

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Finding the tugboat

The first major trace emerged back in September 2014. During a research cruise in the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary region, a team of scientists focused on examining previously acquired images from a multibeam sonar. As it turned out, the sonar image was of a vessel built in the late 19th or early 20th century. The characteristics of the wreck studied, however, did not match any known vessel lost in the region.

A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) was dispatched from the research vessel R/V Fulmar to obtain relevant photo and video documentation to establish more details and identify the wreck. A total of three ROV dives were carried out to further the knowledge of the 52-metre-long, steam-powered, steel-hulled unknown vessel. The results of the work were published in the 2014 summary, along with information on other wrecks investigated this year.

The true identity of the USS Costenoga was established after a thorough analysis of the documentation relating to the vessels that left the Golden Gate and all hearing of them was lost. Information gained during an expedition conducted in October 2015 also helped. It was then that footage from the ROV confirmed that the vessel was equipped with a 12.7mm machine gun. The sum of all the information, and the subsequent expedition, finally allowed all the pieces to be put together. This is how the mystery of the USS Conestoga and her crew was finally solved.

Source: sanctuaries.noaa.gov