Divers have found proof that a shipwreck off the North Carolina coast is a steam ship that sank in 1838.

A tiny tag and a candlestick holder recovered from the wreck site bear the name of the ship 'S.B Pulaski' - for Steam Boat Pulaski - on its bottom, recovery firm Blue Water Ventures International haveconfirmed.

'This is a game changer. I have believed for so long we were in the right spot, and there's nothing like the feeling of having something like this confirmed,' the company's Keith Webb said.

Dr. Joseph Schwarzer, director of the North Carolina Maritime Museums, was among the historians waiting for Webb to prove he was in the right spot.

Schwarzer was hoping for the ship's bell, but he says a candlestick holder with the ship's name is just as good.

'That really is a smoking gun,' Schwarzer said. 'It's like finding proof of something which was not just history, but almost legendary.

'This is empirical evidence. The wreck is no longer folklore, on the pages of a book.

'There is an actually object that proves it is out there.'

Blue Water Ventures International and Endurance Exploration have been working to recover coins and other valuables from a wreckage site.

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

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

But the facts that the coinage found on the boat predates 1838 and that analysis of the wreckage corroborates a boiler explosion were seen as promising by the exploration team.

To read the complete article, see:
Divers confirm wreck off North Carolina coast is famed steamship Pulaskithat exploded and sank 180 YEARS ago killing dozens of the Southern elite (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5718545/Divers-confirm-wreck-North-Carolina-coast-famed-steamship-Pulaski-sank-180-years-ago.html)

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
NCS and NGC Selected to Conserve and Grade SS Pulaski Coins (https://www.ngccoin.com/news/article/6524/SS-Pulaski/)
Gold coins recovered from wreck (http://www.numismaticnews.net/article/gold-coins-recovered-wreck)
NCS TO CONSERVE SS PULASKI COINS (http://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n13a25.html)