The Arabia is a side wheeler steamboat that sank in the Missouri River near Kansas City, Kansas, on September 5, 1856. The boat sank after hitting a tree snag submerged in the river, and was rediscovered in 1988 by a team of local researchers. Artifacts recovered from the site are now housed in the Arabia Steamboat Museum.[1]
Coverage[]
The Arabia is featured in Depths of Destruction when 150 years after people have preserved the items from the time of man where it happened. David Hawley recalls the excavation and explains the recovered artifacts.
Sinking of the Arabia[]
The Arabia in the Missouri River.
The Missouri River have changed from cycles of flooding and erosion.
In 1856, the steamboat Arabia was transporting settlers and cargo along the Missouri River to the western frontier, but near Kansas City, the ship hit a partially submerged tree, ripping open its hull. The Arabia sank and all the passengers survived but the 200 tons of cargo went down with the ship. In the century after the sinking, rapid cycles of flooding and erosion changed the course of the Missouri River and it was so great that the Arabia ended up buried a half mile from the banks which is entombed and forgotten beneath a farmer's field.
Excavation[]
In the late 1980's, treasure hunter David Hawley led a team of explorers to recover the Arabia and what they found is astonishing; a portal to a perfectly preserved slice of life, circa 1856. David Halley recalls that when they reached it in the fall of 1988, they found an uncovered barrel still filled and smelled like butter, barrels of molasses still sweet, and the Arabia were shipping jars, cases, and pickles to the frontier and within the clear-glass jars, the pickles were brilliantly green that one can eat it along with the pie fillings and even the iron were one could open up pocket knives and locks that one could unlock after all the years in the water.
Wool items survive but cotton dissolved.
For the objects and countless others, there were 3 secrets to survival being no exposure to sunlight, a constant temperature, and a lack of oxygen. David Hawley stated that because of the lack of air, there was no oxygen at 45 feet and while one take the same item put it on the surface of the ground, it would rust away within a matter of years. While water and mud preserved many items, others were destroyed by it. David Hawley recalls that not every piece on the Arabia had survived because water was an enemy to some things like cotton which dissolved while wools doesn't because the former is a plant material while the latter along with silk and beaver hair coming from an animal which survived the water.
A broken pin which can no longer be restored.
For the objects that survive, recovery effort was a race against time. David Hawley recalls that the Arabia was excavated in the winter from November to February which took 4 months to dig it and 200 tons were recovered to the short amount of time and sometimes people question why quickly and answers that when someone open up the collection to the oxygen, it begins to decay very quickly making it a ticking time bomb to get the stuff out of the ground, mud, and air into some stable environment. In order to stabilize some of the artifacts, Hawley and his team had to freeze team. David Hawley recalls they found a lot of rolling pins in 1 day and brought it out and typically washed the mud and froze them but one rolling pin rolled off into the shadows and they didn't see it but found it 3 days later and what had been a perfectly preserved rolling pin had shrunk at half of it's height with long cracks along its side and one handle fallen off making it to never be restored.
Conclusion[]
The episode conclude the visit by stating that the steamboat Arabia may not have reached the destination, 200 tons of history recovered from the depths provides a glimpse as what could await on some of the artifacts in a life after people.
Gallery[]
