Pieces of history off Yucatan’s coast (Part Two)

Today TYT brings you the Second Part of this intriguing article from Diario de Yucatán…

To read the Part One click here

The second wreck found was called “Vapor Adalio”, in honor of the grandfather of the local fishermen Juan Diego Esquivel, who led archaeologists to its location, 1.08 nautical miles (1.24 miles) north of Sisal.

It is a Mississippi-type steamboat, whose rocking machine and paddle wheels, among other elements, indicate that it was built between 1807 and 1870, prior to Scottish type boilers and triple expansion.

According to the characteristics of its machinery, the ship would have been manufactured, in its technical part, by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company of the United Kingdom; similar to the vapors HMS Forth and HMS Tweed, shipwrecked in the 19^th century on the Alacranes reef (located nine hours north of the port of Progreso).

The third finding corresponds to an old lighthouse detected at two nautical miles (2.30 miles) from Sisal. It is known that the lighthouse has a measure of 26.24 feet high and 11.48 feet wide. In agreement with the investigation in the SAS team’s office, this lighthouse would have been built at the end of the 19^th century, when Porfirio Díaz lead the Mexican government. It was probably torn from its site by a tropical storm.

This field work in Sisal completes a navigation and reconnaissance circuit that the SAS began in 2003 within the littoral of Campeche. “Today we have a number of wrecks, boats, anchors, cannons and other isolated elements that add more than 400 records within the Inventory and Diagnosis of Submerged Cultural Resources in the Gulf of Mexico and the Mexican Caribbean”. The location of each one in GPS systems is protected in the Geographic Information System of the Sub-Directorate of Underwater Archeology of the Yucatan Peninsula of INAH (headquarters in Campeche).

The archaeologist also highlighted the role of her work team, formed by the historian Abiud Pizá Chávez, the archeologist Rocío Escalante Posse, the administrative technician Gabriel Quetz León, the finance graduate Auricelly García, the graduate in humanistic and social studies Patricia Garza González, and the captain of the boat and guide for four years, Óscar Ucán Ravell.

Source: www.yucatan.com.mx

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