Wreck discovered of French steamship that sank in Atlantic in 1856
A US dive team has discovered the wreck of a French steamship, Le Lyonnais, that sank in the Atlantic Ocean in 1856 after a "hit-and-run" collision with an American sailing vessel, claiming 114 lives.
Le Lyonnais, which was built in 1855 and was considered state-of-the-art at the time, was returning to France after completing its maiden voyage from Le Havre to New York when the disaster occurred.
Jennifer Sellitti of Atlantic Wreck Salvage, a New Jersey-based company, said a team on the dive boat D/V Tenacious discovered the wreckage of Le Lyonnais last month after a two-decade search.
Sellitti said divers positively identified the ship in waters 320 kilometres off of New Bedford, Massachusetts, in an area known as the Georges Bank. They are not revealing the exact location for now.
"She certainly doesn't look as good as she used to," Sellitti told AFP.
"She was really broken apart. The North Atlantic is a brutal place to be a shipwreck – storms, tides. The Nantucket shoals are known for shifting sands that just completely bury wrecks."
Sellitti said measurements of an engine cylinder were key to identifying the vessel.
The iron-hulled Le Lyonnais, which had both sails and a steam engine, was built by a British shipmaker, Laird and Sons, for Compagnie Franco-Americaine to provide passenger and mail service across the Atlantic.
"The 1850s was the beginning of the transition from sail to steam," Sellitti said. "This was an early attempt by France to have its first successful passenger line."
It sank several days later. The handful of survivors were picked up by another ship.
Read more on RFI English
Read also:
How anti-Americanism shaped France's Russophile elites
Women's long battle to vote in France and the generations who fought it
France's famous yet forgotten couturier makes a comeback, 100 years on
