Ship Photos of the Day - USS Conestoga Found!

USS Conestoga (AT 54), the last known broadside photograph taken likely during WWI. Credit: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command NH 71299

NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) and the U.S. Navy announced on Wednesday the discovery of the wreck of USS Conestoga in the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary in California, solving one of the greatest maritime mysteries ever in U.S. Navy history.

The Conestoga and its 56 crew vanished without a trace after sailing from San Francisco Bay on March 25, 1921 on a voyage to Tutuila, American Samoa via Pearl Harbor, but when the ship never arrived many questions over where, when, and how the ship went down were left unanswered.

The shipwreck was actually first documented in 2009, but it took investigators two years and a second survey in October 2015 to confirm the wreck as the Conestoga.

Conestoga was originally built as a civilian tug for a railroad company in 1904, but it was later purchased by the U.S. Navy in September 1917 to carry out towing and escort duties along the Atlantic coast.

You can find more about the USS Conestoga on the National Marine Sanctuaries website.