Historical Commission Rules Out Mobile-Tensaw Delta Wreck as the Clotilda

A team of maritime archaeologists working under the Alabama Historical Commission has determined that a large wooden shipwreck discovered earlier this year in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta is not the Clotilda, the last known ship to bring enslaved Africans into the United States. The finding closes one chapter of a search that has drawn national attention to the Africatown community north of downtown Mobile, while researchers say it will only sharpen the hunt for the actual wreck.

The vessel in question, known as the Twelvemile Island Wreck, was first spotted along the shoreline in January during unusually low water levels on the Mobile River. Its exposed timbers quickly fueled speculation that the remains could belong to the Clotilda, which was burned and sunk in the area in 1860 after smuggling 110 captive Africans into Mobile Bay in violation of a federal ban on the international slave trade that had been in place for more than five decades.

To settle the question, the Alabama Historical Commission coordinated with the National Park Service, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Washington-based Slave Wrecks Project, and the maritime archaeology firm SEARCH, Inc. A team drawn from those organizations and the University of West Florida spent March 1 and 2 documenting the site under a permit issued jointly by the Historical Commission and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Investigators used high-precision GPS equipment, a total station, photo documentation and measured drawings to record the wreck, supplementing that work with scuba diving, limited hand excavation and shallow-water inspection. Wood samples were pulled from several exposed sections of the hull for later laboratory analysis, and the team drew on extensive archival research into the Clotilda’s construction and documented history before ever entering the water.

Why It Isn’t the Clotilda

That combination of fieldwork and archival research left the team confident the Twelvemile Island Wreck is a different vessel entirely. The dimensions alone rule it out: the Clotilda measured roughly 86 feet long with an interior depth of about 6 feet, 11 inches, while the Twelvemile Island Wreck stretches 158 feet, 5 inches, with an interior depth of at least 10 feet, based on the amount of bow structure still visible on site.

Structural details point the same direction. The wreck’s frames, or ribs, measure roughly 10 inches by 10 inches, with hull planks about 2 inches thick, both notably heavier than what would have been used to build a ship the Clotilda’s size. Researchers also found flat iron reinforcing the hull, a construction technique common on larger wooden vessels built between the 1850s and early 1920s but not consistent with the Clotilda’s known build.

The wood itself told a similar story. While formal laboratory analysis of the collected samples is still pending, every timber the team observed on the Twelvemile Island Wreck appeared to be a softwood such as pine. The Clotilda was constructed of oak and yellow pine, and researchers found no oak anywhere on the wreck they examined.

Investigators also noted that a large section of the ship’s upper bow remains buried in mud along the shoreline, and that the surviving timber shows signs the vessel was largely intact when it was abandoned there, slowly breaking down over time as marine organisms consumed the exposed wood above the mud line until heavier portions of the hull eventually collapsed.

That gradual deterioration contrasts with the fate of the Clotilda, which historical accounts say was deliberately burned before it sank. The team excavated portions of the Twelvemile Island Wreck specifically to check for fire damage and found none of the hallmark charring; the wood damage they documented was confined to the waterline, the pattern expected from marine borers rather than flame.

A Renewed Search

Alabama Historical Commission Executive Director Lisa D. Jones said the discovery and the media attention that followed had already done something valuable, regardless of the outcome.

“The discovery and first examination of the wreck and the media stories that followed have powerfully reconnected the story of Clotilda to a national and international audience,” Jones said. “It shares a story with profound meaning in Alabama, and especially to the descendant community of Africatown. While the follow-up investigation of the Twelvemile Island Wreck has found that this wreck is not Clotilda, its discovery and the attention paid to it will be the start of a renewed effort to find Clotilda.”

James P. Delgado, senior vice president at SEARCH, Inc., said the broader research effort suggests the actual wreck is still out there among a cluster of other vessels. “Further historical research and field investigation we have done suggest that many wrecks lie in this part of the Mobile River,” Delgado said. “We believe that a comprehensive survey of the area with a range of modern technology, followed by an examination of each wreck encountered by knowledgeable professionals, will be the best means to find the physical remains of Clotilda.”

Delgado added that the archaeological team intends to keep making itself available to answer questions from Africatown residents and the broader Alabama public as the search continues.

David L. Conlin of the National Park Service’s Submerged Resources unit thanked the Africatown community and the many groups that helped make the examination possible, while also crediting the Smithsonian and the Slave Wrecks Project for their support of the work.

Baldwin County officials confirmed the wreck site itself sits across the river in Baldwin County waters, even as the investigation and its public rollout have centered on Mobile and the Africatown community that traces its founding directly to the Clotilda’s captives. An informational meeting for residents was held at the James L. Hope Community Center in Mobile, giving Africatown neighbors and other interested residents a chance to hear directly from the research team and ask questions about what comes next.

For now, the search for the Clotilda continues, with researchers signaling that a wider survey of the Mobile River’s many submerged wrecks may be the surest path to finally locating it.

The Clotilda Is Found

The wider search paid off the following year. In May 2019, the Alabama Historical Commission announced that a separate wreck in the Mobile River near Twelvemile Island, surveyed by SEARCH, Inc., had been identified as the Clotilda.

Related coverage from South AL News

• Africatown Descendants Celebrate Confirmation That the Clotilda Has Been Found
• Underwater Survey of Mobile River Wraps Up, Search for Clotilda Continues
• Alabama Historical Commission Confirms Mobile River Wreck as the Clotilda
• Africatown Community Leaders Announce Investigation Into Possible Clotilda Wreckage