The National Shipwreck Alliance

09/07/2026

09/04/2026

🎙️ Ask a Docent: "Why was it called the Mosquito Fleet?"

The story goes that someone in an office overlooking Elliott Bay was watching all the boat traffic below and remarked that it looked like a "swarm of mosquitoes." The name stuck, and for more than 50 years spanning the turn of the 20th century, the Mosquito Fleet, these small steamboats, was the lifeblood of Puget Sound. With only trails through the forest connecting communities, the fleet carried mail, goods, and passengers where roads couldn't.

This 1916 photo captures two of those steamers passing along the Thea Foss Waterway. ⚓🌊

Image courtesy of the Washington State Historical Society.

09/04/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1JaTzAmeGL/?mibextid=wwXIfr

One Permit Away From the Bottom of the Gulf

The fastest ocean liner ever built is now waiting on paperwork. The SS United States, stripped, cleaned, and fully remediated, is ready to be sunk off the Florida Panhandle as what will become the world's largest artificial reef, and the only thing standing between her and the seabed is a permit with the US Army Corps of Engineers. Okaloosa County spokesperson Nick Tomecek says the county is "very close," and that once it clears, deployment will likely happen within 30 days, weather permitting. Her iconic smokestacks are off, around 100 fuel tanks have been removed, and months of cleaning have made her environmentally safe. She has been docked in Mobile since March 2025 at a cost of roughly $100,000 a month, and the overall project now runs upwards of $14 million, funded by tourism dollars and private partners rather than taxpayers.

What makes it bittersweet is what she was. Launched in 1952, the SS United States shattered the transatlantic speed record on her maiden voyage and still holds the Blue Riband for the fastest westbound crossing by an ocean liner, a record standing for more than seven decades. Built with government money and secret military requirements so she could be converted into a troopship, she carried presidents, movie stars, and immigrants across the Atlantic until jet travel made her obsolete. Retired in 1969, she spent more than half a century rusting at various berths while campaign after campaign to save her failed. Now she will be visited again, just by divers instead of passengers.

08/27/2026

Buried beneath centuries of sand and salt water, shipwrecks are time capsules preserving worlds of trade, empire, and catastrophe that might otherwise be lost to history. This course explores six extraordinary wrecks and the societies they once served, tracing the lives of pirates, soldiers, merchan...

08/27/2026

Inside the engine room of the Daniel J. Morrell. Sittting on the bottom of Lake Huron 218 feet deep. SS Daniel J. Morrell was a 603-foot (184 m) Great Lakes freighter that broke up in a strong storm on Lake Huron on 29 November 1966, taking with her 28 of her 29 crewmen. The freighter was used to carry bulk cargoes such as iron ore but was running with only ballast when the 60-year-old ship sank. When built in 1906, she was the "Queen of the Lakes", being the longest ship then in service on the Great Lakes.

08/22/2026

08/21/2026

🛫 Reunited once again! SB2C History

Our very own Matt McCauley, reunited with the same SB2C Helldiver he pulled up from the bottom of Lake Washington. This time it wasn’t taking to the skies alone.

All three flight worthy SB2C Helldivers met in Colorado Springs Thursday August 20th to share the air once more.

Catch Matt at the following link, where you can see the planes basking in the morning sun:

https://www.kktv.com/2026/08/20/i-didnt-think-i-was-going-ever-see-it-fly-again-ultra-rare-wwii-planes-soar-over-southern-colorado/?outputType=amp

Hundreds of people turned out to witness three of the last operational WWII-era dive bombers of their kind climbing into the Southern Colorado sunrise.

07/14/2026

Imagine discovering a burned, stripped WWII dive bomber resting 150 feet beneath a lake—then watching it soar through the sky 80 years later. Built in 1944, the rare Curtiss SB2C-1A Helldiver was written off after a crash, used for fire-training, and deliberately sunk before two 19-year-old students found it in 1984. After four decades of painstaking restoration, one of only three airworthy Helldivers left on Earth has finally flown again, turning an abandoned wreck into a living piece of history.
https://bicnews.com/wwii-plane-salvaged-from-lake-washington-flies-again-after-80-years-3/

07/09/2026

Nobody has touched that valve in over a hundred years.

The crew who worked this ship knew where every valve was and what it did. They opened and closed them as part of the daily routine. Steam pressure. Bilge pumps. Fuel systems.

Now they sit frozen in position, exactly as they were left.

This is the part of wreck diving that is hard to explain until someone sees a photo like this. The preservation is so complete that the ship feels like it is just waiting for the crew to come back.

Which wreck gave you that feeling the strongest?