This detail of “Abandonment of the Whalers In The Arctic Ocean September 1871” depicts several of the ships involved in the near-disaster. Wainwright Inlet is in the background. (Ted and Ellie Congdon/Huntington Library)

Archaeologists find wrecks of 19th-century whaling ships off Alaska coast

A team of U.S. archaeologists has found the remains of a fleet of whaling ships that sank after being trapped by sea ice nearly 150 years ago.

Using “state-of-the-art sonar and sensing technology,” researchers from the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration located the hulls of two ships that were among 33 vessels that sank in 1871 in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northwest coast, near what is now the city of Wainwright.

Read full story on CBCwebsite: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/archaeologists-wrecks-19th-centry-whaling-ships-1.3397180