GETTY Whitstable already has a rich maritime history, so the new find will be a great addition

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Volunteers were looking for evidence of World War II pillboxes in tidal areas when they spotted the outline of the wreck on the beach at Tankerton, near Whistable in Kent. Historic England are utilising tree-ring dating to determine the age of the oak-built boat which is estimated to be between 1200AD-1800AD. Toby Gane, a project manager for Wessex Archaeology who led the excavation said the find could be "very exciting". He said: "This is quite an unusual find as we have got a whole preserved section which is in itself quite rare." Mr Gane said the ship is unlikely to be a fishing boat, but is more likely to be a cargo vessel which has blown off course in a storm or was suffering from navigation problems.

GETTY Mark Harrison and his history group have been together in whitstable since 1992

This is quite an unusual find as we have got a whole preserved section which is in itself quite rare Toby Gane

He said: "At the moment we have got no sure way of dating the wreck. "If the samples come back and it is pre-1800 it would be good as relatively few are around. "Anything around say, 1500, would be exceptionally important because so few of those wrecks survived. "There will be information we can take from that which will help us fill in the gaps of our knowledge in ship-building techniques from that period." Mr Gane is cautiously optimistic they might have a rare find, adding the ship does have some "early features" which could be from a long time ago, but until the tests return they will not know for sure.

The potentially rare vessel was discovered by local volunteers who are part of a group called Timescapes Kent. Mark Harrison is one of the members of the organisation who discovered the "remarkable" hidden vessel. He said: "We only came back to area five months ago because we have a project on World War II finding demolition debris from the pill boxes that blew up in the area. "There was this outline and at first we thought it was a fishing trap or oyster trap. "But it was this visible outline in the sand, I work for Historic England as well so was able to call my colleagues so the site could be investigated further."

GETTY The excavation team were originally searching for debris from demolished pillboxes

Mr Harrison admitted the discovery was very exciting for his local history group who have been together since 1995. He said: "A lot of people have come down while we have been excavating the site and knee deep in sand. "There is huge amounts of interest from people we are trying to give a running commentary on what happens." The rare find has certainly got tongues wagging in the seaside town, but Mr Harrison does not want to speculate too much on what sort of ship it actually might be yet.

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Maritime archaeology is a tricky process as boat design did not vary much making it difficult to get a specific date but the tree-ring dating should give a more accurate timescale. One of the most fascinating parts of the project for the team is just how the lower part of the ship has been so perfectly preserved for all these years. He said: "What we need to know it when this ship came to ground at this part of the coastline, as currently the timescale covers an enormous amount of time. "We think the boat washed into shore and then has been preserved in the London Clay, it is just brilliant."