It is the oldest ship ever discovered in Toronto, an early 19th-century schooner found this week by archeologists doing a routine exploration of the site for a condo development near Fort York Blvd. and Bathurst St.

It the ship’s day, everything south of Front St. would have been underwater, with several wharves jutting into the lake, the largest of which was the Queen’s Wharf, a major commercial hub built in 1833.

“We suspect this ship was scuttled deliberately to provide a scaffold for the workers building the wharf,” said David Robertson, senior archeologist at Archeological Services Inc.

The archeological dig began in early March with the intent of documenting the wharves built there in the early 1800s, Robertson said. On Monday, they discovered the wooden skeleton of the schooner.

Only a small portion of the ship remains: the ship’s keel, or spine — which runs about 15 metres from bow to stern — and a portion of the hull.

They also found possible debris from the crew, mostly broken ceramic plates that would have ended up at the bottom of the ship. That is what archeologists used to date the vessel.

“This is a very exciting discovery. It is not too often we come across (vessels) from 1830, particularly in landfill rather than the water,” historian and York University archivist Michael Moir said.

“This is Toronto’s maritime heritage,” he added. “It’s discoveries like this ship that remind us of how Toronto grew and developed into the city is today.”

Studying it “will give us some insight into aspects of 19th-century ship-construction techniques,” Robertson said. They will continue to expose and document the ship and the sections of the Queen’s Wharf they have already found on the Concord Adex development site, he said.

The ship’s future remains under discussion, he said, but it would be difficult to preserve.

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One possibility being explored, Robertson said, is using 3D imaging technology to create a model of what the ship may have once looked like.

This is only the fourth ship to have been unearthed in Toronto, though it is believed there may be many more beneath the paved streets.

“This shows two worlds coming together, the old and the new,” says Councillor Joe Cressy (open Joe Cressy's policard) (Ward 20). He added that discoveries like this is why archeological excavations are now common practice and are an example of good city planning policy.

“We often think of our city as a new city and our country as a new country then you realize, we have tremendous history just beneath the surface.”