St. Augustine, Florida is also called the Ancient City, Old City, and the “Nation’s Oldest City” by some. That history is buried deep within the area… literally. During a construction project, Florida’s Department of Transportation just happened upon a boat from the 1800s buried eight feet underground.
Crews were working on a drainage problem less than a block from the waterfront in St. Augustine when they found the boat. The 28-foot vessel was likely built locally according to archeologists. Only some 18 feet of it remained as the stern likely washed away over time and before the mud and silt covered and entombed the rest.
Documenting the craft was one job but removing it and preserving it was a totally different experience. Crews worked painstakingly to extract each board individually until the entire boat was out of the hole. Workers kept the boat wet the entire time in an effort to keep the wood from drying out and becoming brittle.
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On board, archaeologists found pieces of two shoes, part of an oil lamp, and even some coins, one of which dates back to 1869. Every piece from the excavation has since been photographed, cataloged, and mapped. For now, the findings are sitting in a wet-storage vat in the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum until a permanent home can be found.
Ian Pawn, an archaeologist and the cultural resources coordinator with the regional transportation office laid out plans for what happens next. “We’d like to share it in some sort of way. We want to work very closely with the city of St. Augustine and some specialty archaeologists as well, so we can find it a good home and a place to share it,” he told USAToday.