Geo Quiz

Semiramis

For our Geo Quiz today — we’re tracking the Semiramis. That’s the name of a 3-masted ship that last sailed in 1804. Back then it was en route from China to Rhode Island. Somewhere along the eastern seaboard of the United States, the ship encountered rough waters.

“It’s an extremely bad place to be in a ship like the Semirass, shifting sandbars, you’re exposed to the wind, and there’s quite a bit of current that races through that place with the changing of the tides. It’s a bad place especially back then in a deep drafted sailing vessels.”

What happened to the Semiramis 200 years ago is still a bit of a mystery. But the waters it was crossing are well charted. They lie in between two islands that have become tourist havens.

President Obama vacationed on one of those islands this summer. But it’s back to work now.

So, name the shallow stretch of the Atlantic where the Semiramis went missing.

We’ll reveal the answer here…

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Geo Answer:
The answer to our Geo Quiz today may be the site of a historic shipwreck. It’s a treacherous stretch of the Atlantic Ocean called Long Shoal (one of the Nantucket Shoals) located between Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts.

Underwater explorer Barry Clifford is seeking salvage rights to a historic shipwreck that’s believed to be located there. In 1804, the Semiramis, a 120-foot, 3 masted ship was returning from a voyage to China loaded with a valuable cargo of tea, porcelain, and possibly silver and gold. It sank and disappeared in these rough waters between Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.

In 1984, Clifford discovered a pirate ship, the Whydah, that sank off Cape Cod in 1717. Thousands of salvaged artifacts from that shipwreck are now featured in the Real Pirates exhibit at the Field Museum in Chicago.