Industry
Whaling Brig · United States · Lost 1836 · The Gulf of Mexico
A Massachusetts whaling brig, its crew including Black and Native American mariners, lost to a Gulf storm and found by ROV nearly 200 years later.
Become Captain of Record
The Vessel and Her Loss
Industry was a two-masted whaling brig built in 1816 at Westport, Massachusetts, and worked the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico for two decades. On May 26, 1836, a storm damaged her mast and hull about 70 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River, and she filled with water and sank; all 15 crew, who included Black and Native American whalemen, were rescued by another whaling vessel. The wreck was located in 2011 and identified with high confidence in 2022 by a NOAA, BOEM, and SEARCH Inc. expedition, making it the only known whaling ship wreck yet found in the Gulf.
Vessel
- 1816
- Isaac Cory Jr.
- Westport, Massachusetts
- Wood
- 64 ft
- 20 ft
- 94
- Sail, two-masted brig rig
- Isaac Cory Sr.
Loss
- May 26, 1836
- Storm
- Approximately 70 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River
- Gulf of Mexico
- Not established
- Not established
- 15
- 0
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- 6000 ft
- Deteriorated wooden hull remains with visible tryworks stove and anchors, documented by remotely operated vehicle.
- Not established
- 2011 (located); 2022 (identified)
- Managed as an archaeological site by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM Wreck Site 15563)
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Offshore, south of the Mississippi River mouth
Checked government (TARP/THC/BOEM/NOAA/state reef program), museum, academic, and dive-resource sources; found only descriptive loss-location narratives with no published latitude/longitude for the wreck site.
Evidence
Overall confidence: Documented (80/100)
Researchers describe the identification as very likely rather than certain, based on artifacts and archival research rather than a nameplate or bell.
Build details, loss narrative, and discovery/identification history.
Archaeological assessment and identification confidence.
