Excavators working at the site found, deep underground, what the New York Times describes as “a row of sturdy, upright wood timbers, regularly spaced, sticking out of a briny gray muck flecked with oyster shells.” As the unearthing continued, it became clear that this was most definitely a full-fledged ship, preserved 20 to 30 feet underground and undisturbed for a couple centuries.
As remarkable as this discovery was (the last similar find was back in 1982, when a cargo ship from the same era was discovered under Water Street), it is also an extremely delicate one. Had the weather not been so dreary and rainy, the ship would have started to deteriorate instantly from sun exposure.
So as archeologists and scholars clamored to the site, time was against them. Not only could the sun come out at any moment to start senselessly destroying the old vessel, but construction could not be stopped just for the find. Scientists and construction workers were both racing to get their work done as fast as possible in the same pit, trying not to disturb one another:
