According to Alan Jamieson’s book Out of the Depths: A History of Shipwrecks, UNESCO estimates there are more than 3 million shipwreck sites around the world. In every seafaring culture, shipwrecks have long captured the imagination. This September, the New Bedford Whaling Museum hosts a discussion about shipwrecks on our own shores and beyond.

Local History Guild is the NBWM’s quarterly Zoom program, an informal discussion about art, history, science and culture related to the museum’s mission, collection, and the surrounding region. Amid the height of hurricane season, this program will bring the history of shipwrecks to the surface—in our local waters of Buzzard’s Bay, as well as more generally in the Atlantic and elsewhere. Speakers will address how shipwrecks can be understood from different perspectives of art, history, and science, and what new research has revealed.