Archaeological divers spent 10 days assessing the sunken ship in the Mobile River, taking samples for possible DNA remains.

Researchers are one step closer to solving some of the mysteries of the Clotilda, the last known ship that brought enslaved people from Africa to the United States.

A team of underwater archaeology divers led by the Alabama Historical Commission spent ten days studying the well-preserved shipwreck in Alabama’s Mobile River. As part of their expedition to better understand the Clotilda’s condition and determine how best to preserve her, scientists took samples from 110 people who moved to Mobile in 1860 in the hope of finding traces of DNA.

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After transferring the enslaved passengers to a riverboat, the Clotilda’s captain, William Foster, burned and intentionally sank the ship in July 1860. In doing so, Foster hoped to destroy evidence of a crime: Although Congress had banned the importation of enslaved people in 1808, Foster and enslaver Timothy Meaher illegally forced more than 100 men, women, and children to make the 45-day journey from West Africa to Alabama.

The sunken Clotilda has remained in the same spot for the last 162 years. Although rumors circulated for years about Clotilda’s existence, researchers officially confirmed the ship’s location in 2019.

Now scientists are finally studying the underwater ship. Divers have begun their first reconnaissance missions and field assessments, which primarily involve examining timbers and other parts of the ship that broke off during the wreckage. Although the wood has deteriorated greatly over the last century, surprisingly, researchers could still smell the scent of pine when they went inside.

The researchers also examined bacteria and marine organisms living in the area, such as worms and crabs, and analyzed sediments on and near the ship.

They believe they may have found evidence of Foster’s crime, including charred timbers and a mixture of charcoal and mud inside the hull.

“This is a slow methodical process in which the picture of the wreck is slowly emerging,” the researchers wrote in the study’s discovery log.

Researchers searched the ship for DNA to link their enslaved captives to their modern-day descendants and took a small core sample from a corner of the ship’s hold and sent it for testing. The hold, located below the main deck, had previously been used for lumber; it was cramped and dark, about 7 meters long and less than 2 meters high.

The findings from this dive will help decide how to evaluate the Clotilda in the next step. It could take years to organize parts of the ship for display in a museum, so removing and preserving the entire hull will be a major undertaking. Sharing the team’s initial findings in a public forum, state archaeologist Stacye Hathorn said that “no possibility has been ruled out”.

Still, descendants of the enslaved people aboard the Clotilda want to do whatever it takes to preserve and display the ship as a reminder of the horrors of slavery.

Darron Patterson, President of the Clotilda Descendants Association, said: “It takes a certain amount of evil to make something like this happen, to treat people like cargo. We want that ship to be on display so that the world will never forget this evil.”

Smithsonian Magazine