Steamship that sunk in 1856 with 132 on board discovered in Atlantic, 200 miles from shore

A long-lost transatlantic passenger steamship that sank off the East Coast more than 165 years ago has been discovered in the Atlantic, a boat team from Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, announced this week.

The French steamship Le Lyonnais sunk Nov. 2, 1856, after a collision with the American sailing vessel Adriatic.

Only 16 of the ship's 132 passengers were rescued from lifeboats. The rest are believed to have perished. A New York Times article from Nov. 26, 1856, describes a futile search for more survivors. The ship was thought to have sunk southeast of Nantucket Shoals off Massachusetts.

The dive team from Atlantic Wreck Salvage, however, located the vessel farther out to sea, on the Georges Bank, 200 miles from New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Jennifer Sellitti, a partner in Atlantic Wreck Salvage, whose dive boat Tenacious made the discovery, said the incident drew "international intrigue" but lost public interest when the Civil War broke out a few years later.

“Le Lyonnais, her passengers, and her story captivated me and set me on an eight-year journey in search not only of her final resting place but also for the truth behind her sinking and its eventful aftermath,” Sellitti said.

The dive team's previous work:Andrea Doria foghorn blasts from Beach Haven, 65 years after it sank in the murky sea

From sail to steam

Le Lyonnais was built by Laird & Sons − now Cammel Laird − in 1855 for Compagnie Franco-Americaine. She was one of six ships built by Laird for Franco-Americaine to be used in transatlantic passenger and mail service.

Le Lyonnais was built during a time when ships were making the transition from sail to steam. It was equipped with sails and a horizontal steam engine and is an early example of a passenger liner with two mid-19th-century innovations: a screw propeller and an iron hull. Franco-Americaine launched Le Lyonnais in January 1856 and put her into service carrying cabin-class clientele and cargo between New York and Le Havre, France.

On Nov. 2, 1856, during its first return voyage to Le Havre from the Americas, the ship collided with the Maine-built barque Adriatic, which was en route from Belfast, Maine, to Savannah, Georgia.

Adriatic left Le Lyonnais with a small hole in its hull, and water eventually overwhelmed the vessel. Adriatic was damaged in the collision but remained afloat. Her crew assumed Le Lyonnais was intact because the steamship continued its course. Adriatic sailed to Gloucester, Massachusetts, for repairs. But Le Lyonnais sank days later.

Sellitti, who is an attorney, called the incident a hit-and-run, because the captain of the Adriatic never reported the collision. She documents the collision along with the discovery in a new book, "The Adriatic Affair: A Maritime Hit-and-Run Off the Coast of Nantucket," from Shiffer Publishers, out Feb. 28.

Finding Le Lyonnais

Shipwreck hunter Eric Takakjian first searched for Le Lyonnais in the late 2000s. Sellitti and her partner Joe Mazraani renewed the search in 2016 and spent eight years working with Takakjian to locate the ship's final resting place.

Sellitti said part of the difficulty of finding the ship was many of the early newspapers accounts of the Le Lyonnais placed it on Nantucket Shoals. But their research, which included survivor accounts and court documents, pointed her to the Georges Banks.

Their team, which also consisted of divers Andrew Donn, Kurt Mintell, Tom Packer and Tim Whitehead, side-scanned potential targets in 2022 and 2023 and, after reviewing the data, narrowed the search to a series of potential candidates. They returned to the search area in August to dive the targets, one of which they identified as Le Lyonnais.

Sellitti said a few major clues told them they had the right ship. The first was when they found the ship's direct acting horizontal engine. Le Lyonnais was one of the first ships to have that type of engine. Another clue was the engine cylinder's diameter was 57 inches, matching Le Lyonnais. Iron hull plates were another clue, along with the discovery of the deadeye, a wooden block used in a ship’s rigging system, since the Le Lyonnais was outfitted with a steam engine and sail.

"Those clues with the location, sonar data and measurements, further solidified that we were diving the lost French liner,” Mazraani said.

The team has not disclosed the exact location or depth of the wreck because they plan to return to further catalog artifacts. Sellitti said that the wreck lies in deep water, with visibility at best 30 feet, and that it is buried in the sand.

When Jersey Shore native Dan Radel is not reporting the news, you can find him in a college classroom where he is a history professor. Reach him @danielradelapp; 732-643-4072; dradel@gannettnj.com.