WASHINGTON (AP— The discovery of a century-old shipwreck off the San Francisco coast has resolved one of the U.S. Navy’s greatest maritime mysteries. And for Violet Pammer, it resolved the question of what happened to her Uncle Harvey.
“I grew up with Uncle Harvey’s picture hanging on the wall. We never knew what happened,” said Pammer, a Northampton, Pennsylvania, resident and the great-niece of Harvey Reinbold, boatswain of the USS Conestoga. “It was supposed to be his last voyage.”
The Conestoga, a tugboat, had a crew of 56 when it departed the Golden Gate on March 25, 1921, on its way to Pearl Harbor and eventually American Samoa.
When the Conestoga failed to arrive at Pearl Harbor as scheduled, the Navy launched what was the greatest search and rescue effort of the 20th century, surpassed only years later by the search for Amelia Earhart. There had been some thought that a garbled communication received near Hawaii might have come from the Conestoga, but nothing was found. There was little expectation that the newly refurbished Conestoga would sink so soon into her voyage. In June 1921, the Navy declared the Conestoga and her crew lost.
On Wednesday, researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Navy announced they have found the Conestoga in the waters of the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary about 30 miles off the coast.
The waters, home to great white sharks and migrating whales, also serve as the final resting place for more than 300 shipwrecks, which NOAA has been trying to map in recent years.
The identification of the Conestoga was a yearslong effort that featured a mix of research, dangerous work in shark-infested waters and a dash of good luck, researchers said.
Several dozen family members attended Wednesday’s announcement, including Diane Gollnitz of Timonium, Maryland, the granddaughter of Conestoga commander Ernest L. Jones.
“It brings to closure this big mystery we had in our family,” said Gollnitz, who never knew her grandfather.
She said he “was raised on a farm in landlocked Kansas, but he read books about the sea and always wanted to join the Navy.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.