But, even at this point there is disagreement as to what occurred next. Some sources says that she was sold to a private company and ended her days as a merchant vessel in the East Indies trade. Others says that she was used to transport troops to India in 1783-1784 and then sold or decommissioned there. It is completely possible that we may never know that true fate of this great warship of the American Revolution.
Yet, there may be one, last glimpse of her final days. In early 1945, a young US officer, LT William L. Carbine of Augusta, GA, who was stationed in India, was touring a jute mill between Calcutta/New Delhi and the coast along the banks of the Ganges River. He discovered a bell marked "South Carolina" at the mill. He purchased the bell and transported it to the United States where it now resides in the War Memorial Building on the University of South Carolina. A series of letters passing between LT Carbine and Kathleen Lewis and the University of South Carolina president, Admiral Norman M. Smith, are preserved there also. These letters announce the discovery of the bell by Carbine, his presentation of the bell to the University of South Caroliniana Society, and further attempts to research the history of the ship. Carbine believed that the jute mill dated back to the second half of the 18th century which would be appropriate for the time frame of the ship. Thus, it is possible that the South Carolina did end it's days in this region of the world and that her bell somehow made it to that jute mill on the Ganges River to await her discovery by LT Carbine over 160 years later. It is more than likely that we will never know for sure.