A bell recovered from a Southeast Alaska shipwreck that claimed 112 lives more than a century ago rang Thursday, May 29, for the first time in 117 years, signaling its future role in a Wrangell maritime tradition.

Jeanie Arnold, director of the Nolan Center, struck the bell at the close of a community presentation, marking a significant moment for the artifact. If the bell can be restored in time, it will be used to ring out names at the community's annual blessing of the fleet in 2026.

The recovered bell will be conserved at the Texas A&M Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation before being returned to the Wrangell Museum for display at the Nolan Center. Its restoration is estimated to cost between $6,000 and $10,000. The documented wreck site will be nominated for the National Register of Historic Places.

"This whole situation has been exciting, for sure," Arnold said. "It's a real honor to be a part of this and to have the bell here."

The bell belonged to the Star of Bengal, a 264-foot, iron-hulled ship that sank on Sept. 20, 1908, near Coronation Island, approximately 80 miles southwest of Wrangell. The disaster was the second-largest shipwreck in Alaska history by lives lost.

Of the 142 people on board, 112 perished, including 96 Asian cannery workers. While most of the white crewmen who drowned were buried in individual graves, the bodies of the cannery workers, who included 67 Chinese, 26 Japanese and one Filipino, were interred in a mass grave and never identified.

The Star of Bengal, an 1,877 gross ton, three-masted ship, was built in 1874 at Belfast's Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Northern Ireland, also known for constructing the Titanic.

A team of volunteer researchers mapped the wreck site in May after a previous attempt in 2022 was hampered by poor weather. The 2025 expedition successfully documented hull frames and plates, four anchors, the windlass, other ship's machinery and the ship's bronze bell.

The dive team presented videos of their work while updating the community on the project and taking questions from the audience at the May 29 event.

The research team was led by marine archaeologist Evguenia Anichtchenko (who also goes by the shortened Jenya Anichenko), long-time Wrangell fisherman and diver Gig Decker and Canadian Sean Adams, a remote-sensing specialist. The 2025 team also included diver/photographer Stephen Prysunka of Wrangell, Tayller Adams of 3 Points in Space Media, divers Shawn Wells and Kevin Lansdowne, and Bill Urschel and Corky Parker of the nonprofit Alaska Endeavour.

The expedition's primary objective was to identify the boundaries of the wreck to establish the area as a historic site.

Decker, who has spent decades searching and researching the shipwreck, emphasized the importance of identifying the Asian laborers.

"The Star of Bengal is really a tangible event to attest to the mistreatment of Asian laborers," Decker said, noting that "the back two hulls of the ship were packed with salmon and, it's likely the Asian workers were all stuck inside the first hull where they stayed."

On its last voyage of the packing season in 1908, the ship was headed from Wrangell to San Francisco, traveling through Sumner Strait under tow of two small tugboats, when high winds, no communication and mechanical failures forced the tugboats to sever the tow lines, according to researchers.

The ship broke apart on the rocks of Coronation Island.

In addition to the 142 people on board, the ship carried 2.5 million one-pound cans of canned salmon from the Alaska Packers Association Wrangell cannery.