A French passenger steamship that sank in 1856, killing over 100 people, was found last month at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, D/V Tenacious, a New Jersey-based shipwreck hunting group, said.

The ship, Le Lyonnais, which was built in England in 1855, was traveling from the United States to France when it collided with the Adriatic, an American sailing ship, killing 114 of Le Lyonnais’s 132 total passengers, D/V Tenacious said on Sept. 4. The Adriatic never stopped.

For over a century and a half, the location of the ship’s final resting place stumped shipwreck hunters. Then on Aug. 24, seven D/V Tenacious shipwreck hunters confirmed that they had found the wreckage about 140 miles east of Nantucket, Mass.

“Being able to find this ship, I felt like I was giving closure to the people who suffered there,” Jennifer Sellitti, 50, said. Ms. Sellitti is a lawyer and historian and wrote a book about the sinking of Le Lyonnais called The Adriatic Affair: A Maritime Hit-and-Run off the Coast of Nantucket.

D/V Tenacious said it was not disclosing the wreck’s exact location because it did not want others to flock to the sight. It plans to return to the dive site to learn more about the ship.

On Nov. 2, 1856, crew members for Le Lyonnais and The Adriatic realized too late that they were about to collide.