Jul 16 2010
Hull of an old ship uncovered at World Trade Center in New York City
New York City – A 32 foot long ship hull seemed to be from the 18th century is now being excavated by workers at the World Trade Center cite. The artifact, deteriorating fastly due to exposure to air, is hoped to be retrieved intact by the end of Thursday, July 14th.
Archaeologist Molly McDonald said that a boat specialist is still planning to look at it. Mcdonald hopes to at least salvage some timbers, although she was unsure that the large portions of the hull could be lifted intact. “We’re mostly clearing it by hand because it’s kind of fragile,” she said, but construction equipment could be used later in the process.
Both McDonald and archaeologist A. Michael Pappalardo were at the site of the September 11, 2001 attacks and when the discovery was made Tuesday morning.
“We noticed curved timbers that a backhoe brought up,” McDonald said. ‘We quickly found the rib of a vessel and continued to clear it away and expose the hull over the last two days.” In sequence these photos of the ship were taken and were taken to the press today.
“We’re going to send timber samples to a laboratory to do dendrochronology that will help us to get a sense of when the boat was constructed,” McDonald said. Dendrochronology is the science that uses tree rings to determine dates and chronological order.
A 100-pound anchor was found a few yards from the ship hull Wednesday, but the archaeologists are not sure if it belongs to the ship. It is three to four feet across, McDonald said.
The two archaeologists work for AKRF, a firm hired to document Artifacts Discovered at the site. They called the find significant but said more study was needed to determine the age of the ship.
This news article is in reference to The Washington Post article on this excavation.
