Bertrand 1865
Marker: recorded wreck position (Steam era).
Key facts
| Name | Bertrand | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1865 | Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier |
| Era | Steam era | derived from year |
| Ship type | steamboat | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Nationality / flag | United States | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Nearest coast | United States | Natural Earth (public domain) |
| Position | 41.5233, -96.0289 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
The Bertrand was a steamboat which sank on April 1, 1865, while carrying cargo up the Missouri River to Virginia City, Montana Territory, after hitting a snag in the river north of Omaha, Nebraska. Half of its cargo was recovered during an excavation in 1968, more than 100 years later. Today, the artifacts are displayed in a museum at the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge near Missouri Valley, Iowa. The display makes up the largest intact collection of Civil War-era artifacts in the United States and is an invaluable time capsule of everyday life during that period.
Diving & visiting
More than 100 years later, in 1968, private salvagers Sam Corbino and Jesse Pursell discovered the wreck in the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Since the boat was found on government property, the men had to comply with the Antiquities Act of 1906, by which they relinquished all of the recovered artifacts to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for permanent preservation. More than 10,000 cubic feet of cargo and over 500,000 artifacts were recovered from the hold during the excavation. The artifacts represent a time capsule of life in 1865 and are now on display at the museum of the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge near Missouri Valley, Iowa.
Location
- Recorded position: 41.5233, -96.0289 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Nearest coast: United States
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Bertrand (steamboat) (revision 1379564691), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Rediscovery”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
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