Jennifer N. Sellitti is a lawyer and shipwreck hunter. She is also the author of The Adriatic Affair:  A Maritime Hit-And-Run Off the Coast of Nantucket. The book will be released on February 28. The book tells the story of the collision that sane Le Lyonnais and its aftermath.

The Le Lyonnais collided with the ship called the Adriatic off the coast of Nantucket in November of 1856. And it's the story of both the collision, how 18 people survived this disaster, and the aftermath of the collision, which actually had some political consequences involving the way shipping regulations in the North Atlantic developed from the mid -19th century as nations were grappling with what happened when two ships from different countries met.”

Jennifer spent a decade researching the ship, the people on board, the circumstances of the collision, and the circumstances of people who survived in lifeboats. Some of the research involved divers from her team D/V Tenacious, to locate Le Lyonnais.

“So, what we do is we map the historical data to the hang locations, and then we go out with a side scan sonar. We imagine the ocean floor. We spent two years imagining the ocean floor to find potential targets. And then last summer, we went out to dive several targets, and one of them turned out to be the ship that we were looking for, the Le Lyonnais, and we put divers on it to confirm that identification.”

Jennifer wrote this book for those who are not familiar with shipwrecks and hopes readers takes away the importance of shipwreck preservation.

“I tried to educate readers just on the importance of our maritime history. It's estimated that there are about four million ships on the ocean floor all around the world. We have many, many ships off the east coast of the United States. And each one of those ships really has a story to tell. When you think about what happened to the people on those ships, the stories of the people who lived, the stories of the people who died, there's so much history.”

Jennifer will continue exploring the Le Lyonnais, and shipwrecks off the coast of New Jersey and off the coast of Nantucket.

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