Mississippi River's low water level reveals shipwreck

On Nov 2, 2022

(19 Oct 2022) SHOTLIST
RESTRICTION SUMMARY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Baton Rouge, Louisiana – 18 October 2022
1. Drone aerial from above wrecked ship
ANNOTATION: A shipwreck has emerged along the banks of the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as water levels plummet.
2. Wide of river bank looking up at Mississippi River bridge
3. Wide of people walking in boat looking back at Mississippi River bridge.
4. Drone aerial over river looking at barges and Mississippi River bridge
5.SOUNDBITE (English) Harvey Best III, Rosedale, Louisiana resident:
“There’s so much history here. We can’t just drive across the bridge worrying about getting somewhere else without understanding what this river means. It’s our lifeblood and has been for many years.”
6. Wide of hardware sticking out top of wrecked ship
ANNOTATION: The ship, which archaeologists believe to be a ferry that sunk in the early 1900s, was spotted by a Baton Rouge resident earlier this month.
7. Mid of men touching outer edge of the wrecked ship.
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Chip McGimsey, Archaeologist for the State of Louisiana:
“What’s really cool about this is people can come down here and actually see it. They can touch it, they can walk in it. They can ask questions about it. It makes history alive in a way that you don’t get any other way.”
9. Mid of kids and man walking inside the middle of wrecked ship.
ANNOTATION: The discovery is the latest to surface from ebbing waters caused by drought.
10.Tight of ship parts sticking out of water
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Chip McGimsey, Archaeologist for the State of Louisiana:
“The drought is the only reason we see her. Normal pull of the river is up there at the top of the tall green weedy patch.”
ANNOTATION: Earlier this year, receding waters in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area revealed several skeletal remains and countless desiccated fish.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Boulder City, Arizona – 31 May 2018
12. Pan of dock in the dirt to expanse of mud where lake once was
13. Aerials of lakeshore, showing shoreline that was once underwater++MUTE++
14. Various of buoy in dirt.
ANNOTATION: They also revealed a graveyard of forgotten boats and a sunken World War II-era craft that once surveyed the lake.
15. Pull-out of boats in harbor at Callville Bay along Lake Mead, dry docks and expanse of mud and dirt
STORYLINE:
A shipwreck has emerged along the banks of the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as water levels plummet — threatening to reach record lows in some areas.
The ship, which archaeologists believe to be a ferry that sunk in the late 1800s to early 1900s, was spotted by a Baton Rouge resident walking along the shore earlier this month.
The discovery is the latest to surface from ebbing waters caused by drought. During the summer, receding waters in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area revealed several skeletal remains, countless desiccated fish, a graveyard of forgotten boats and even a sunken World War II-era craft that once surveyed the lake.
“Eventually the river will come back up and (the ship) will go back underwater,” said Chip McGimsey, the Louisiana state archeologist, who has been surveying the wreck during the past two weeks. “That’s part of the reason for making the big effort to document it this time — cause she may not be there the next time.”
McGimsey believes that the ship may be the Brookhill Ferry, which likely carried people and horse-drawn wagons from one-side of the river to the other — before major bridges spanned the mighty Mississippi.
Newspaper archives indicate that the ship sank in 1915 during a major storm.

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/

You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/f8283ffbddc845d1afa0580514f08adf

source