A luxury steamship that went to the bottom of the Atlantic in 1838 with half its affluent passengers may have been found 40 miles off the coast of North Carolina.

An underwater exploration venture based out of Florida said it has found enough evidence to convince backers they've found the wreck of the Pulaski sitting under 115 feet of water.

That evidence includes Spanish and U.S. silver coins that date up until the time of the wreck, along with wreckage that closely parallels survivor's stories of a starboard boiler explosion thatsank the ship in 45 minutes.

To say the discovery is important is an understatement, historians said.

The ship was bound for Baltimore from Savannah when it exploded around 11 p.m. on June 13, 1838. One hundred of the roughly 200 people on board died, including many who were scalded to death bysteam. Newspaper accounts tell dramatic stories of "panicky passengers in their night clothes, seeking refuge on the promenade deck as the bow rose out of the water and ripped apart."

Writers have likened the disaster story to "the Titanic of its time."

To read the complete article, see:
Divers believe they've found famed luxury ship that sank in 1838 off the NC coast(http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article195517649.html)

The coins that have been found by the operation's divers are dated to no later than 1836.

They include early United States silver issues and Spanish silver coins from the late 1700s.

To read the complete article, see:
(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5289199/Explorers-shipwreck-North-Carolina-coast.html)