Latest news with #NewYorkStateMuseum
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Revolutionary-era gunboat buried for centuries beneath Ground Zero gets new life
The Brief An incredible discovery dating back to the 1700s is now in the process of being restored before going on display at a museum. Pieces of an 18th-century wooden gunboat buried deep beneath what was the World Trade Center were uncovered back in 2010. "It was found in landfill that was used to expand New York City." NEW YORK CITY - An incredible discovery dating back to the 1700s – all unearthed beneath Ground Zero – is now in the process of being restored before going on display at the New York State Museum. Dig deeper The discovery happened back in 2010, when pieces of an 18th-century wooden gunboat buried deep beneath what was the World Trade Center were uncovered by archaeologists excavating the site. "We began looking at the ship itself and trying to piece ideas back together," said Dr. Peter Fix, associate research scientist with Texas A&M University. "One possibility that came up was a gunboat, built on probably the New Jersey side of the Delaware River, right across from Philadelphia, in the summer of 1775." What they're saying Fix and a team from the university studied and stabilized the water vessel. The original materials had to be worked with as the pieces of the ship were submerged in water for a long time. "The thing that we had to do was to document the ship in a way that we could rebuild all the individual pieces into the ship on a computer," Fix said. The ship, about 50 feet long, featured a raised deck. It's now being reconstructed at the New York State Museum. The process is open to the public as an exhibit called "The Gunboat at Ground Zero: A Revolutionary War Mystery." Once the ship, almost in its entirety, is back together, it will remain on display. "It was found in landfill that was used to expand New York City." Michael Lucas "Well, first of all, it's a very interesting artifact," Michael Lucas, curator of historical archeology at the museum in Albany, said. Local perspective How the ship ended up buried in New York City remains a mystery, but it's believed the war-era vessel was at some point abandoned along the Hudson River. "It was found in landfill that was used to expand New York City," Lucas said. "So, there's a story about the expanse of New York City in the 1790s, and then in order to expand the city, they had to make land out into the river." The 9/11 Memorial & Museum is now located where the Hudson River once was. Historians and archaeologists say evidence, including artifacts, suggests the vessel was likely captured by the British and traveled south, perhaps as far as the Caribbean before arriving in New York. "There was a British military button with a 52 on it, which stands for an infantry unit called the 52nd of Foot, so it's a British regiment. You have three gun flints. We have a couple of buttons. We have some, a lot of lead shots," Lucas said.
Fox News
23-05-2025
- General
- Fox News
Mysterious 18th-century warship unearthed at Ground Zero site gets new home
A lost Revolutionary War-era ship that was unearthed at the site of the World Trade Center will finally be exhibited in a museum over a decade after it was found. The New York State Museum announced in a mid-May press release that the ship will be housed in its Albany headquarters. The 18th-century vessel was found during an excavation of Ground Zero in July 2010. But details about the boat have perplexed historians until now – just in time for America's 250th anniversary. With help from Texas A&M University historical preservationists, experts have been working for 14 years to gather facts about the ship while preserving it carefully. The ship, which measures 50 feet long and 18 feet wide, has been identified as a "rare" American-built gunboat. The vessel was likely built in the Philadelphia area in the 1770s. It was used during the Revolutionary War but was decommissioned after roughly two decades. "[B]y the 1790s, the ship was out of commission and repurposed as landfill to expand New York City, ultimately ending up beneath what would become the World Trade Center," the New York State Museum said. "Today, it stands as one of the few American-built Revolutionary War ships to be identified, studied and preserved in New York State." In total, 600 pieces of wood and roughly 2,000 artifacts were found at the site, including musketballs. After years of carefully preserving each piece of wood and artifact, the preservation team began the process of reconstructing the vessel at the New York State Museum on May 14. In a statement, New York State Historian Devin Lander said the exhibit is "history in its rawest, most thrilling form." "We're not just unveiling a ship – we're resurrecting a lost relic of the American Revolution, right before your eyes," Lander said. "New York stood at the epicenter of our fight for freedom, and this gunboat is a physical reminder of that courage and grit." The historian added, "To watch it rise again, plank by plank, is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to witness the intersection of archaeology, storytelling and national identity."
