It’s believed that the ship ‘Africa‘ sank in a storm about 130 years ago, and its wreckage has now finally been discovered after decades of mystery.
+ Click here to watch the video of the mysterious ship
A ship that sank during a storm 130 years ago has been found, but its state has experts puzzled. The Africa was towing another ship, the Severn, through Lake Huron at the border of the USA and Canada in October 1895 when it disappeared.
With the towline broken, the Severn ran aground on the Bruce Peninsula in Canada, where its crew was rescued – but the Africa was never seen again… until now.
Thanks to documentarians Yvonne Drebert and Zach Melnick, who were in the area filming about mussels, the shipwreck was discovered. However, the pair were surprised to find the ship now covered by an invasive mussel species, alien to the area.
The ship is in pristine condition, resting on the lake bed, as if it had fallen straight from the surface and was resting on the bottom.
The Africa was found using an underwater ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) at a depth of 85 meters. But with the ship now enveloped by invasive mussels, which arrived in the Great Lakes 30 years ago, identifying it was a challenge.
A clue was the enormous size of the wreck, measuring 45m in length, 8m in width, and 4m in height, and there is also a field of coal debris around the ship – the same cargo carried by the Africa and the Severn on that fateful night. Having identified the Africa, Drebert can now shed some light on the mystery of the ship’s sinking.
In their documentary, All Too Clear, Melnick and Drebert explore how the quagga mussels are reshaping the Great Lakes ecosystem on a scale not seen since the glaciers receded. At the moment, there are no plans to recover the vessel.
Photos and video: Instagram Reproduction @trebekinitiative
