The Minnie Breslauer is one of the unluckiest ships to sink in Bermuda waters. She was an English steamer built in 1872. The 300-foot steel-hulled freighter was on her maiden voyage between Portugal and New York, loaded with a cargo of wine, dried fruits, bales of cork and 160-pound lead ingots. Unfamiliar with Bermuda’s reefs, the captain edged his new ship toward the shore, where she collided with a submerged reef and ground to a halt. An attempt to back the ship off the reef only resulted in it sinking.
The wreck is one mile off the south shore in depths ranging from 35 to 70 feet. Still visible is the ship’s huge steam boiler, parts of the wheelhouse, the ship’s steering quadrant and a four-bladed propeller.
