Ship's bell ‘will ring again' 100 years after Alaska shipwreck, officials say
A crew of researchers has recovered the bronze bell from a ship that sank near a remote Alaska island more than 100 years ago, officials said.
The bell from the Star of Bengal, a 264-foot ship that sank in the early 1900s, is bound for the Wrangell Museum in Alaska, according to a news release included in William Urschel's May 26 Alaska Endeavour Captain's Log newsletter.
Urschel is captain of the Endeavour, a research vessel used in the trip that led to the bell's recovery.
During the trip, the researchers mapped the shipwreck near Coronation Island in Southeast Alaska, finding and documenting 'the hull frames and plates, four anchors, the windlass, other ship's machinery' and the bell, officials said.
The bell will make a stop at Texas A&M University for conservation work before it goes to the museum in Wrangell, according to officials.
The Star of Bengal was constructed in 1874 in the same Irish shipyard where the Titanic was built, officials said.
The Alaska Packers Association bought the ship in 1906 to transport cannery workers, products and supplies between Wrangell and San Francisco, California, according to officials. It sank in 1908 after leaving Wrangell, officials said.
More than 100 people died, largely cannery workers, many of whom were immigrants from China, according to officials.
The ship was being pulled through a strait by two tugboats, but 'a combination of high winds, no communication, and mechanical failures forced the tugboats to sever the tow lines,' officials said. The ship dropped its anchor, and 'the anchor dragged and the ship was broken on the rocks' of the island, officials said.
The shipwreck is the second-deadliest maritime disaster in Alaska, according to officials.
Urschel wrote in his newsletter about the bell's meaning.
'There is something special about a ship's bell. It gives life to a ship. One of our party said, 'Science is important, but 100 years from now folks will connect to the Star and the cannery workers who died on it through this bell,'' he wrote.
He added that, 'The men going down that night heard that bell. That bell will ring again.'
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