Melting Arctic Ice Helps In Discovery Of 1800s Shipwrecks Off Alaska

A team led by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has located the remains of two ship hulls and other parts believed to be from the wreckage of 33 whaling ships lost to an ice pack in the latter 1800s.

Thanks to a warming Arctic, researchers have been able to locate well-known but previously inaccessible shipwrecks off the Alaskan coast. 
The remnants likely belong to 33 whaling vessels dating back to 1871.
They are believed to have become shipwrecked when an ice pack was not moved out to sea by winds as expected but remained by the shore and trapped the fleet in. 
While the 1,200-plus people survived thanks to a crew of rescuers, the ships did not. 
Previous attempts to locate the vessels resulted mainly in pieces of gear and t