Experts say it’s still the only whaler known to have gone down in the Gulf of Mexico, where the threat of enslavement at Southern ports posed a risk for Black and mixed-race men who often were part of whaling crews:
This image taken by NOAA Ocean Exploration in February 2022 shows what researchers believe to be the wreck of the only whaling ship known to have sunk in the Gulf of Mexico.
Researchers checking out odd shapes during undersea scanning work on the sandy ocean floor believe they've finally found the shipwreck about 70 miles offshore from Pascagoula, Mississippi. It was documented in February by remotely operated robots in about 6,000 feet of water. The find also sheds light on the way race and slavery became entangled in the nation’s maritime economy, said historian Lee Blake, a descendant of Paul Cuffe, a prominent Black whaling captain who made at least two trips aboard the Industry.
The two-masted brig Industry went down in 1836 about 70 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River. An anchor and bottles believed to date to the early 1800s are visible. , which sank in 10,000 feet of frigid Antarctic water a century ago and is incredibly well preserved. Bottles believed to date to the early 1800s are visible around Industry, but no ship's nameplate; what appears to be modern fishing line lies near the metal tryworks used to produce oil from whale fat.
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