Second piece of 18th-century ship unearthed at World Trade Centre site offers clues it transported British troops to the New World



The 18th-century sailing vessel found under Ground Zero in lower Manhattan was used to transport British troops to the New World, new clues suggest.



Archaeologists have unearthed a second piece of the sunken ship that was discovered close to the old World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan in July, 2010.

Experts have continued to piece together the ship's history and believe its construction could date back to the 1770s, during the time of the Revolutionary War.

Buried: The boat sits 20 to 30ft below street level, in an area the Port Authority is excavating to build a vehicle screening center for the World Trade Center

Incredible discovery: Archaeologists dismantling the ship exposed its ribs earlier this week

The new find came as workers began digging up the east side of the construction area, which once housed the World Trade Center complex.

Archaeologists first noticed remnants of the ship - curved pieces of wood buried 30ft below street level - in a planned underground vehicle security centre last summer. RELATED ARTICLES Previous

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Next 22 Seals from the unit that shot Osama bin Laden are killed... Fox News under fire for article calling Obama's 50th... Share this article Share Two weeks were spent excavating the first artefact - a vessel initially thought to be 32ft-long.

The piece that was found last Friday, which belongs to the very front of the ship, has provided new and crucial clues as to its size and use, however.



Questions remain: The archaeologists stand near the end of the ship, but are unsure if it is the prow or the stern

A closer look: The ship was uncovered while workers were digging near Liberty and Cedar Streets

Planks: An archaeologist removes mud from the 18th-century sailing vessel

Conferring: Archaeologists meet while standing aboard the boat at the World Trade Center site

Michael Pappalardo, an archaeologist with engineering consultancy firm AKRF - hired to document artefacts discovered at the site - was on hand for the unearthing.

He told DNAInfo he estimates the ship was 50ft long at its base and 60ft long on the deck.

'It does give us a much better sense of the boat's original dimensions,' he said.



Scientists from AKRF spent two days removing the newest piece, which measures approximately six feet long, three to five feet wide and approximately one foot tall.



Experts speculated last autumn the vessel had been used as a merchant ship used to t ransport commodities like sugar, salt, molasses and rum up and down the Atlantic coast.

All smiles: Conservators clean the wood timbers at the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory

Artefacts: Archaeologists dismantling the ship also unearthed these relics believed to be from the 18th century

Infested: Worms from the Caribbean ate away at the wood, researchers believe

Relic: A clay pipe bowl found within the ship, likely left behind by one of the workers who built it

Maritime historian Norman Brouwer suggested the it travelled to the Caribbean, where it became infested with Teredo worms and finally had been added to the landfill that was created to extend lower Manhattan west.

A British military button found between the frames last summer supports the theory the vessel may have been used around the time of the Revolutionary War as some type of troop carrier.



The button, a pewter disc with the number '52' in the centre corresponds with the 52nd Regiment of Foot, a light infantry regiment of the British Army that tried to suppress the colonial uprising in the northeast, an AKRF researcher told the New York Times.



Bird's eye view: The 200-year old ship was unearthed at the World Trade Center site

Landfill: The location of the boat, compared to the coastline in 1766

Piece of history A laser scan of the boat as the excavation continues

Preservation: Pieces of the World Trade Center boat sit in a tank in Maryland, in a special solution to prevent them from deteriorating

The button being pewter, as opposed to silver, suggests it adorned a private's uniform, AKRF's Diane Dalal said.



Additionally, they have linked the wood that was used to construct the ship to Pennsylvania, suggesting that the boat - which was likely created around the time of the Declaration of Independence - might also have been born in the Philadelphia area.

Archaeologists to not yet know the boat's name or its mission

Ship-shape: Archaeologists work on the remains of an 18th century ship found buried at the site of the World Trade Centre in July, 2010



No time: Workers raced to preserve the wood before it disintegrates as it comes into contact with the open air for the first time in centuries

Remnants were left in place last week for inspection, and then taken to the AKRF's Manhattan office to be readied for shipment to the Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation at Texas A&M University.

New site: An artist's impression of the planned World Trade Centre One

All of the artefacts will be saved there under stable conditions until the Port Authority determines whether the remains will be preserved - and perhaps later reconstructed - or if only a select group of will be saved and preserved.

Last year, an anchor weighing seven stone was also discovered at the site after excavators uncovered curved timbers that a backhoe brought up.

The rib of the vessel was finally exposed after two days work .

Archaeologists have called the find 'significant', meanwhile Mr Pappalardo described how the search for clues has turned into a race against time after the delicate wood was exposed to air.



'I kept thinking of how closely it came to being destroyed,' he said.

The discovery of the ship was made on land which was not disturbed by construction of the original World Trade Centre towers in the 1960s.

The 2001 terrorist attacks destroyed the iconic Twin Towers, prompting a competition to design their replacement.

Work on One World Trade Centre, a single skyscraper originally named Freedom Tower, started in 2006.