Industry was an American-built whaling brig active in the Gulf of Mexico from 1816 until it sank in 1836. Master carpenter Issac Cory, Jr., son of the brig’s owner, Issac Cory, Sr., began construction of the brig in Westport, Massachusetts, in 1815, and completed it in 1816.
Industry had an overall length of 19.5 meters, a beam of 6.1 meters, an 2.6 meters depth of hold, and a registered tonnage of 94.3 tons. It was constructed with a single deck and had two masts. Designed to serve as a whaler, it operated as such for approximately 20 years in the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico. On May 26, 1836, a storm damaged one of Industry’s masts and its hull, causing it to take on water and sink. The location of its sinking was recorded approximately 70 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River.
Identified as Site 15563 by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) after it was first located by an energy company in 2011, this shipwreck site was explored for the first time — and determined to most likely be Industry — on February 25, 2022, during a NOAA Ocean Exploration shakedown expedition aboard NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. Remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Deep Discoverer — equipped with an Insite Pacific Zeus Plus camera capable of collecting high-definition footage — was used to document the site, which is at a depth of approximately 1,845 meters and is approximately 22 meters long and 7 meters wide.
A model of what is thought to be Industry (BOEM Wreck Site 15563) from NOAA Ocean Exploration is based on the ROV dive footage from timestamps 20:35 to 23:00. This footage was exported into 4,636 still images in VLC Player. Three individual models were made (the entirety of the site, the stove, and an anchor) and then stitched together in Rhinoceros 8 and uploaded to Construkted Reality. An additional photogrammetric model of this site is available on BOEM’s Virtual Underwater Museum.
The full annotated video of this dive can be viewed on SeaTube.
Site Name: BOEM Wreck Site 15563
Type: UCH
UCH Vessel Date Built: 1816
UCH Vessel Date Sank: May 26, 1836
Hull Material: Wood
Official Number: N/A
Expedition Number: EX2201
Expedition Name: 2022 ROV and Mapping Shakedown
ROV Dive Number: 02
ROV Dive Date: February 25, 2022
Location: Northern Gulf of Mexico
Depth: 1845 meters
Length: Approximately 22 meters
Width: Approximately 7 meters
ROV Used: Deep Discoverer
Camera Information: Insite Pacific Zeus Plus HD, 3-CCD color camera with 2/3-inch 2,200,000 pixel 1080i IT CCDs
Video or Stills: Video
Number of Images Used/Format: 4,636/JPG
Image Alignment Percentage: 83%
Number of Tie Points: 1,408,604
Link to Raw Video Footage: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/ocean-exploration/video/cruiseId=EX2201&oerkey=DIVE02
Time to Complete: 6 hours
Orthomosaic Views Available: No
Images Available: Yes
Animations Available: Yes
Available File Exports/Location/POC: archaeology.oceanexploration@noaa.gov
Link to NOAA Ocean Exploration Project Page: https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/news/oer-updates/2022/industry.html
Software: Agisoft Metashape Standard Version 2.0.1, Rhinoceros 8.
Developer: Raymond Phipps, NOAA Ocean Exploration explorer-in-training, August 4, 2023.
Credit: Model courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration, 2022 ROV and Mapping Shakedown.
