A mother and Logos in Saint Augustine , Florida , experienced a much more exciting sidereal day at the beach than anticipate when they discover remnants of an honest-to-goodness wooden ship moisten up on the Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin .
During an early morning lounge session on the deck of a Ponte Vedra beach rental house on Wednesday , March 28 , Julie and Patrick Turner spotted a sizable chunk of wooden rubble . According to local news program outletFlorida Times - Union , Julie Turner rapidly notified local authorities after her boy excitedly declare that the odd sighting was actually part of an onetime ship .
As request by state car park ship’s officer , archeologist from the Lighthouse and Maritime Museum – who have enquire many shipwrecks along the Florida coast – arrived on the scene to take photos and measurements before the 14.6 - meter - long ( 48 - fundament - long ) remains could be wash back out to ocean .
Because the corpse are technically state dimension , Florida ballpark functionary require to make up one’s mind what to do with them . This determination was time - sensitive , however , thanks to the incoming high tides that scattered pieces of the wreck later on Wednesday and threatened to steep the rest on Thursday .
Thankfully , Guana State Park officers granted the museum staff permissionlate Thursday afternoonto move it higher up the beach .
Now safe from the waves , the archaeologists are continuing their study of the wreckage .
Brendan Burke , the museum ’s maritime historian , tell the Florida Times - Union that the fuzz tack head seeable on the plank advise that the Cordell Hull was once covered with a sheet of copper . He and his colleagues also observe wooden pegs , called trunnels , that are used to attach the Isaac Hull board to the rib , and Roman number carve on the rib .
take together , the preliminary evidence suggests that the corpse are from a big sailing vessel dating back to the late 1700s to 1800s .
“ It ’s really awesome to see somebody ’s authorship that been buried in the ocean for well more than a century , ” Burke severalise theFlorida Times - Union .
As to why remnants of the long - abandon ship have just lately appeared , the museum ’s researcher theorise that the shipwreck was initially buried in a near - shore sandbar , where it was buffeted by years of waving activity .
" All along the US coastline shipwreck look and disappear with shifting sands , " noted underwater archaeologistPeter Campbelltold IFLScience .
" The upper layer of marine deposit is quite peregrine and when a big tempest event passes through it can move the deposit off large strong object . For wreck out at sea , the storms can churn up the bottom and move fragments or individual artifact from the wreck site up onto the beach . The sea is fantastically potent – it can move massive amounts of deposit and even whole shipwrecks ! "
Moving forward , the museum squad go for to produce a 3D model of what the gravy boat looked like and determine on the nose when and where it was build .
