Historic preservation workers rush to save 18th-century ship found at World Trade Center site

Workers at the future World Trade Center site on July 13 uncovered the remains of an 18th-century wooden ship, sending historic preservation officials on a race to document the deteriorated vessel.

A. Michael Pappalardo, an archeologist working with the Port Authority to record artifacts discovered during the World Trade Center excavation, confirmed to The New York Times that the wooden beams most likely were part of a ship's hull, and not the wooden structure used to extend the Manhattan shoreline in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The 30-foot section of hull was uncovered between 20 and 30 feet below street level at the World Trade Center site, the first such find worthy of historic preservation since 1982.

The wooden beams were evidently preserved in the pitch-dark, anaerobic environment of gooey mud and broken oyster shells for more than two centuries -- even as the original World Trade Center was built nearby in the 1970s. Once exposed to air, however, the wood began to deteriorate. Officials from the New York State Historic Preservation Office worked quickly to measure, sample and record the hull.

Though historic preservation experts hesitated to identify the type of vessel or why it was there, the Historic Preservation Office's chief regional archeologist, Doug Mackey, and Mr. Pappalardo mused that the hull appeared sawed off, indicating its use as landfill material in efforts to extend the shoreline into the Hudson River.

Other artifacts were found with the ship, including a well-preserved leather shoe and a large, crescent-shaped iron band. The band was attached to a brick structure that had apparently been built into the hull itself, leading some amateur historic preservation enthusiasts on the Times' comment boards to decide the ship was a whaler. Though whaling was a lucrative trade in Long Island's Sag Harbor in the 18th century, according to Eric Jay Dolin's "Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America," historic preservation officials at the World Trade Center site didn't say whether the uncovered ship served that purpose.

Work at the World Trade Center site was temporarily halted during historic preservation efforts.

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