The Industry had been battered in a violent squall in the Gulf of Mexico. Its masts had been torn away. Its crew had abandoned it. And its floating remains had been picked clean by another whaling ship before the stricken vessel sank in 6,000 feet of water.
The brig, just 64 feet long, had been built in 1815 in Westport, Mass., and was a 20-year veteran of the whaling industry. Its sinking in May 1836 would make it the only whaling ship ever lost in the little-known whaling grounds of the Gulf.
