“I told the students on my bus,” said Aaron Bencaz. “But no one believed me.”
It may have been unbelievable to the other sixth graders. But the 11-year-old really discovered a shipwreck. And because Aaron found the wreck, he also got to name it. He called it “Aaron’s Shipwreck.”
Aaron found the wreck in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was playing with his dog, Cash, and a family friend along the Mississippi River on October 16. “It was just a regular day,” Aaron remembered. “It’s pretty common for us to go to the river.” On this day, however, Aaron noticed something strange. Planks of wood stuck out of the sand.
“We saw what we thought was a fence,” Aaron said. But “the wood looked a little bit older. And the metal looked older too.” Aaron’s mom sent a picture to the Louisiana State Archaeologist. That is Charles McGimsey. He went with Aaron to the site.
“It ended up being a shipwreck,” said Aaron.
McGimsey called it “very unusual” to discover a shipwreck. “Shipwrecks are on the bottom of a lake, ocean, or river,” he explained. “They only become when the water level drops.” A made the Mississippi River drop. That let Aaron see the wreck.
“We don’t know a whole lot about it,” McGimsey said about Aaron’s Shipwreck. “I’m not sure it’s actually a ship,” he added. “I suspect it’s part of a barge.” It’s hard to know when the wreck was from. McGimsey said it was “probably after the 1880s.”
Ships and barges are now common in the Mississippi River. Aaron sees them often. And he plans to keep exploring the river. “It’s pretty muddy and sandy,” said Aaron. “But I think it’s beautiful.” And he added: “There’s not many alligators.”
Aaron had advice for kids to make their own discoveries. “Be creative,” he suggested. “Explore everything.” McGimsey agreed. “It’s a matter of keeping your eyes open,” he added.
Now everyone knows that Aaron was telling the truth. How did the students at his school react? Said Aaron: “Some of them were like, ‘Oh, I should have believed you!’”
Updated December 8, 2022, 5:01 P.M. (ET)
By Russell Kahn (Russ)
