Mysteries of the Sea: The Cursed Wreck in the Gulf of Mexico

Were the Disastrous Expeditions to the Mica Wreck Just Bad Luck, or Something More?

The Gulf of Mexico is one of the wealthiest locations for maritime archaeology in the world. An estimated 4000 shipwrecks litter the seabed across the stretch of water. They include those in the nearshore shallows and those sunk in thousands of feet of darkness. Research has shown that 2,000 ships have gone down on the Federal OCS between the years 1625 to 1951 with thousands more being sunk closer to state waters. The Mica Wreck, however, named for the oilfield in which it was found, might just have more secrets than even archaeologists can uncover.

It was in February of 2001 that oil workers for Exxon-Mobile made a startling discovery 2,600 feet deep on the seabed in the Gulf of Mexico, 30 miles off the mouth of the Mississippi River. They had just drilled an eight-inch pipeline straight through the midships of a shipwreck. Immediately reported to the Mineral Management Service (MMS, now known as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management) who have jurisdiction over such wrecks, a preliminary investigation got underway with the involvement of the Department of Oceanography and the Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas A&M University (TAMU).