At the beginning of 2007, the Santa Catharina wreck was discovered by a team of divers operating in the Abrolhos Archipelago, in the south of the state of Bahia.
The search for the wreck had as its starting point its indication on the nautical chart updated by the Brazilian navy.
The wreck was a steam freighter built in 1907, where at the time, the company that owned it was Hamburg Sud, a German multinational that operates in the transport of cargo in the merchant marine around the world, and which at the time, was transporting a cargo coming from New York City in the United States, destined for Santos, in the State of São Paulo.