Neva Shipwreck

Guest: Timothy Dilliplane, Col. (Ret.), Assistant Professor at Massachusetts Maritime Academy and Co-Principal-Investigator of the Neva Project  In January of 1813, a Russian ship called the Neva wrecked off the coast near Sitka, Alaska. More than a dozen of the ship’s crew had already died in the difficult journey from Siberia. Another 32 died when the ship broke apart on the rocks. But 28 men made it to shore alive. And then what? It was mid-winter in Alaska. They had nothing but what they could forage on land and scavenge from the wreckage. Remarkably, 26 of the men were still alive when they were finally rescued a month later.  The story of how they survived has remained a mystery, until now. Researchers from the US and Russia - funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation - believe they’ve found the campsite of the shipwreck survivors.