São Salvador

After a collision, the São Salvador sailed on for about an hour until it began taking on a lot of water. The captain stopped the ship one mile off the coast, and the 60 passengers were taken in lifeboats to Jauá beach. Two days after the accident they reached Salvador, and some walked the whole way from Jauá. For years the wreck was known only as Salvador, and some confused it with the steamer Gambie, until the different measurements of the two ships made it possible to identify it.

Today the wreckage rests on a white sand bottom and preserves the ship's entire outline, from bow to stern. At the center, behind two destroyed boilers, lies a rare set of oscillating steam engines, with cylinders and pistons still visible. In one corroded cylinder you can see the connecting rod and the piston. The wreck is heavily frequented by schools of fish.