On Wednesday, 23rd March, 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S Navy announced that the wreckage belonging to the USS Conestoga had been found, finally solving the 95-year-old mystery of its disappearance. They announced that the wreck had been found a few miles off the Southeast Farallon Island near the California coastline. The story begins back in 1921, on Good Friday, when the USS Conestoga left the navy yard at Mare Island in California for Pearl Harbour with 56 sailors on board. By 3:25 PM it had crossed the Golden Gate bridge steaming into the dangerous waters of the Gulf of the Farallones. The USS Conestoga, although known to be a rugged ship when it was launched, had become weary and earned a reputation for being a "wet boat", one that would let in water easily, seventeen years later on that fateful Good Friday.

At around 4 PM that day, the ship recorded big waves and extremely strong winds. Once the Conestoga crossed Point Bonita, it lost contact and was never heard from again. The worst had happened.

95 years later, the US Navy Memorial hosted a morning ceremony in Washington that was attended by the relatives of the sailors who had lost their lives to the sea. Diane Gollnitz, 73, of Lutherville, Maryland - the granddaughter of the Conestoga's skipper, Lt. Ernest Larkin Jones said,"It is so overwhelming for all of us, It connects the past of 95 years ago, and all the stories we were told, with the future," she said. "My grandchildren are here."

The wreck site was found during a sonar survey done back in 2009 and examined by underwater robots in 2014 and 2015, said James P. Delgado, director of maritime heritage, Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. Research showed that the ship had sunk approximately 2000 miles away. No trace of the crew was ever found in the tragedy. In October last year, it was confirmed that the wreck was actually the Conestoga.

Back then, no one even realised that the ship had been missing until more than a month had passed and it hadn't shown up at its destination, Pearl Harbour, according to a report on the discovery by Delgado and NOAA colleague Robert V. Schwemmer. The Navy then launched an 11-day search party with 60 ships and several airplanes covering an area of 300,000 square miles. But since the search was being conducted around Hawaii, where it was thought that the Conestoga was last sighted, it was unsuccessful. On June 30th, 1921, the Conestoga was declared lost with all hands.