Last slave ship to U.S. found?

MOBILE, Ala. — Researchers say remains of a wooden ship found embedded in the mud in a river delta in southwestern Alabama may be the Clotilda, the last vessel to bring slaves to the U.S. nearly 160 years ago.

The wreck, which is normally covered by water in the lower MobileTensaw Delta, was recently exposed by unusually low tides and located by a reporter for Al.com who covers the environment and conservation, Ben Raines.

Experts told Al.com the ship remains could be the Clotilda, which was burned after delivering human cargo to Mobile, Ala., in 1860, based upon where Raines found it and the way it was built.

“You can definitely say maybe, and maybe even a little bit stronger, because the location is right, the construction seems to be right, from the proper time period, it appears to be burnt. So I’d say very compelling, for sure,” said Greg Cook, a University of West Florida archeologist who examined the wreck.

John Bratten, who works with Cook exploring shipwrecks, said there was “nothing here to say this isn’t the Clotilda, and several things that say it might be.”

One key element is the location of the wreck: It’s essentially where the Clotilda’s captain, William Foster, wrote that he burned and sank the ship in 1860, the year before the start of the Civil War.

President Thomas Jefferson signed a law in 1807 forbidding the importation of slaves, but slavery remained the linchpin of the Southern farm economy for decades after. Mobile was a prime port on the Gulf Coast with river access to the cotton-growing plantations upstream.