SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA—Members of a NOAA research team used remote-controlled cameras and sensing equipment to investigate the shipwrecks in the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and the adjacent Golden Gate National Recreation Area. They were able to identify the SS Selja, which sank after a fatal collision in 1910. The resulting legal case was ultimately argued before the U.S. Supreme Court over a key aspect of maritime law, the “rule of the road.” The Gold-Rush era clipper ship Noonday was also found beneath mud and silt on the ocean floor. An early steam tugboat has yet to be identified. “These wrecks tell the powerful story of the people who helped build California and opened America to the Pacific for nearly two centuries. Finding the remains of these ships links the past to the present,” James Delgado, director of Maritime Heritage for the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, told Phys.org. To read more about Delgado's work, see ARCHAEOLOGY's "Letter From Bermuda: Secrets of a Civil War Shipwreck."
