|
| Landlocked Shipwreck Found |
 A large construction site in downtown San Francisco unearthed the remains of a massive Gold Rush-era sailing ship from the early 1800s.
Workers, under the direction of an archaeologist, brushed dirt away from the ships decay bowing that showed through the dirt. The ship was unearthed as a digging crew removed dirt to lay the foundation for a 650-unit condominium.
"This is awesome. Everybody gets excited about this," James Allan, an archaeologist with Williams Self Associeates overseeing the removal and cataloguing of the ship, told the Construction Times. "It makes digging in all that mud worthwhile."
A standing agreement exists between the city of San Francisco, the site developer and Allan's firm to record the historical value of any cultural findings the come across as the construction continues. Allan says the ship does not have anything of value, beyond its historical significance, on board.
In the 1850's, as many as 600 ships were abandoned in San Francisco's harbor, scuttled or junked by their owners who had caught gold fever and left to mine the rich gold veins in California's interior.
Those ships now form the base of the city of San Francisco's financial district. Hundreds of ship form a portion of the landfill, previously prime waterfront, that the area was built upon.
The remains of this ship lie two blocks inland now, a sign of the changing waterfront. Other inland shipwrecks have posed problems for public works projects. A Municipal Railway tunnel extension was recently completed that goes through the remains of the hull of The Rome.
To see previous Spotlights in our new, easier to read Spotlight archive, click here, or discuss this story on our new message boards.
|
|
|
|
 "Click for larger image")