In 2003, the wreck was located 100 mi (160 km) off the coast of Savannah, Georgia,[1] and artifacts are on display in selected museums, along with video stories about passengers and crew members.

A short time later Tennessee was used to open the first regular passenger steamship service between New York City and Central America.

Tennessee for several years regularly served the Vera Cruz, Mexico–New Orleans route, often transporting immigrants to America as well as large sums of Mexican gold and silver.

As USS Tennessee, she was not only a fast and effective blockade ship in the West Gulf Squadron, but also a powerful gunship used to bombard Ft. Morgan during the Battle of Mobile Bay.

In September 1864, she was renamed USS Mobile to allow a famous Confederate armored ram ship to carry the name Tennessee after its capture.

She was sold at auction in March, 1865, renamed SS Republic, repaired, and soon returned to the New York–New Orleans route hauling passengers and cargo.

By evening, her hull was leaking so badly that the fire in the boiler was extinguished, and she stalled in heavy seas, taking on water faster than her crew and passengers could bail her.

A salvage effort recovered about one-third of the rare 19th-century gold and silver coins carried aboard, worth an estimated $75 million.