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Editorial
If only those old timbers could talk
Monday, July 19, 2010
An archeological discovery at Ground Zero serves as a reminder of much more than the history of Manhattan Island.
It's a reminder of just how young our country is -- even out here on the plains, where modern history started much later.
Workers building a new World Trade Center uncovered a 32-piece of a wooden vessel from the 1700s. According to marine historian Norman Brower, the ship may have sailed the Caribbean, because it bore signs of marine organisms that created tiny tunnels in the timber.
The ship was probably an obsolete derelict by the time it was loaded with weight and sunk about 1810 to help add more land to the already bustling lower Manhattan. A 100-pound anchor was found a few yards from the ship, but it's not certain it came from the same vessel.
Molly McDonald, an archaeologist who first spotted two pieces of hewn, curved timber, also noted other traces of human life nearby "pieces of shoes all over." By coincidence, Dr. Robert Ballard, discoverer of the wreckage of the Titanic, noted the numbers of shoes scattered around that undersea graveyard.
Pieces of the Manhattan wood will have to be studied quickly, as they crumble almost as soon as they are exposed to fresh oxygen. Scientists will use dendrochronology -- the study of tree rings -- to try to determine the hulk's age, as well as what type of wood was used and other information.
Archeologists were also hoping against hope to find coins under the ship's keel, traditionally placed there during construction to bring the vessel good luck.
If only those old timbers could talk. Tales of the true pirates of the Caribbean? Hauling supplies for the Revolutionary War? Carrying members of our nation's founding fathers?
Let's hope researchers have the skill, and perhaps enough luck, to fill in some of details of the history of the old craft rising from the muck below the new World Trade Center.
Historical finds like these help connect our nation to our past, and should help keep us from taking all we have today for granted.