‘It Looked Like a Rock Pile’
When John Noonan of Hampton Bays, N.Y., bought a boat from a retiring, 70-year-old fisherman on Long Island two decades ago, the 31-foot-long vessel, which he named Storm Petrel, came with a bonus—the little notebook the man used to record the Loran-C coordinates of wrecks and other underwater locations. Noonan had no idea one entry would solve a Civil War mystery.
“One particular set of numbers seemed interesting,” said Noonan, “so I went out to the wreck in 2004 and spent about 30
