Gravestones

By Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

In response to:
What Do You See (WDYS) #163 December 5, 2022 posted by Sadje

During the worst drought in recorded history, the waters of San Francisco Bay dropped to levels so low, the wreck of the steamboat The City of Chester was finally located.

Shortly after Chester was discovered, The NoonDay, an 1800’s clipper ship, The S.S. Selja, a workhorse cargo steamer which sank in 1910 and The S.S. City of Rio de Janeiro, a steamer carrying immigrants to the New World and sank in 1901 were also exposed to research divers. These divers, previously unable to penetrate the extreme depths and cold waters of the Bay, eventually located over 300 wrecks dating back hundreds of years.

These lost and hidden undersea antiquities were treasured finds to the historians and scientists of the world; but no one had been prepared for the discovery of the Merpeople graves and gravestones revealed by the massive silt vacuums of the powerful underwater dredges.