Reporter May Have Discovered Clotilda, The Last American Slave Ship
There's still some uncertainty but Ben Raines says based on research, local lore and physical evidence, this might be the ship that illegally carried more than 100 Africans into slavery.
The bow, the stem and the ribs of the ship stretched into the Alabama sky in plain sight for nearly a century, but weather and time eventually buried the wooden vessel below the muddy waters of the Tenslaw Delta. Until last month when the "bomb cyclone" blasted an unusually cold northern wind through the region that blew out 2 1/2 feet of water and left the ship exposed.
That was the break Ben Raines, a coastal and environmental reporter for AL.com had been waiting for.
Raines believes the charred remains of the shipwreck he discovered are likely those of the Clotilda, the last American vessel to illegally bring African slaves to the U.S. nearly 160 years ago.
Raines NPR Wednesday that seeing
