Alabama is moving forward with plans to study and recover artifacts from the submerged wreck of the Clotilda, the last slave ship known to have landed on American shores.
Seeking a dive contractor
The Alabama Historical Commission has released a request seeking contractors to provide divers who can assess and document the two-masted schooner’s remains near Mobile. Under the scope of work, teams would remove artifacts, test the wreck’s timbers and could collect wood samples and DNA material. The document also raises the possibility of installing a monument at the site.
Sonar images released by the agency showed the vessel lying on the river bottom, its outline crisscrossed by what appear to be fallen trees or stray timbers.
A crime hidden, then found
In 1860 — on the eve of the Civil War — the Clotilda made an illegal voyage financed by wealthy Mobile businessman Timothy Meaher, delivering about 110 kidnapped Africans to Mobile before the ship was burned in a bayou to hide the evidence. After emancipation, many of those survivors founded Africatown just north of downtown Mobile, where descendants remain part of the community today.
A search team located the wreck beside an island in the Mobile River, and researchers announced its identification as the Clotilda in 2019. A federal court subsequently granted the state ownership of the wreck, clearing the way for recovery work.
Preservation and an exhibit
State officials committed $1 million last month toward preserving what remains of the ship. An exhibit featuring items recovered from the Clotilda is scheduled to open later this year in Mobile, giving the public a direct look at one of the most significant maritime archaeological finds in American history.