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Has the Cotopaxi Been Found?

Has the Cotopaxi Been Found?

Astonishing Legends vor 6 Jahren

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1:30:12

On November 29, 1925, the tramp steamer SS Cotopaxi left port at
Charleston, South Carolina, under the command of Captain William
Meyer loaded with her usual cargo of coal, and headed for Havana,
Cuba. The voyage was routine until the ship ran into a fierce
tropical storm off the eastern coast of Florida near
Jacksonville. On December 1, the Cotopaxi sent out a distress
call saying it was taking on water and listing badly. A thorough
search of the area found no trace of the vessel or its thirty-two
crew members, and the Cotopaxi would become another entry in the
long record of seafaring mysteries, with many believing it had
also become a victim of the infamous Bermuda Triangle. Although a
notable tragedy in its day, the story of the Cotopaxi would fade
from the public's memory, that is until it made a surprising
cameo in Steven Spielberg's 1977 motion picture, Close Encounters
of the Third Kind. What would later become even more surprising
was the discovery of a shipwreck matching the Cotopaxi's
description sometime in the decade following the film. However,
due to the sunken ship's concealment in ocean sands, no one would
realize the similarity at the time. Laying in about 100 feet of
water and 35 nautical miles east of the coast of the historic
city of St. Augustine, Florida, the site became popularly known
as the "Bear Wreck," an assumption of its association with
another lost ship. It would take a nagging hunch and nearly 15
years of diving on the wreck for marine biologist and underwater
explorer Michael Barnette to finally have enough of the puzzle
pieces to make a solid connection to the Cotopaxi. While the
wreck's dimensions, various recovered parts, and a position
correlated with newly discovered insurance records make this site
a strong candidate for the Cotopaxi, there is still a missing
clue that could positively identify the doomed steamer. Please
join us for a more casual conversation about the recent news that
may be a rare occasion where the headline is earned, "Mystery
Solved!"

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