By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — Construction workers at the World Trade Center may have unwittingly destroyed the 30-foot back section of an 18th century boat that was discovered near the site nearly two weeks ago, archaeologists say.
A report by a team of archaeologists theorizes that the damage to the boat's aft was done late last year, when Port Authority workers were seeking to mitigate delays caused by the still-standing Deutsche Bank building.
Port Authority officials had ordered workmen to build a concrete slurry wall just west of the Deutsche Bank site so that they could begin excavating on one side of the wall without undermining the foundation of the soon to be demolished building.
But archaeologists think that the Port Authority’s concrete wall cut right through the mud where the World Trade Center boat had been encased for about 200 years.
“The rear of the boat may have been destroyed by the construction of [that] slurry wall,” archaeologists at the firm AKRF wrote in a report released this week.
The Port Authority did not see the boat while building the wall last year because they had just dug a narrow trench and poured concrete into it, while now they are doing a broader excavation, said Steve Coleman, a Port Authority spokesman.
David Allen, professor of maritime history at the State University of New York Maritime College, said the entire boat would have offered a more complete picture of its past.
“It’s always helpful to have everything,” Allen said. “Sometimes a lot of artifacts are on one end of the boat and not the other.”
Allen said the captain and officers’ quarters were usually in the back of the boat, while the crew lodged in the front.
“It’s always better to have the entire artifact,” agreed Amanda Sutphin, director of archaeology at the city Landmarks Preservation Commission. “But any part of an 18th-century ship is still great and exciting.”
It is possible that the boat’s rear, or at least pieces of it, could still be buried on the other side of the slurry wall, beneath the Deutsche Bank building, Sutphin said.
Since Monday, a team of archaeologists from AKRF has been working 16 hours a day to carefully document the front half of the ship and dismantle it, so the fragile wood can be preserved.
The boat is scheduled to be removed by Friday, said Coleman, the Port Authority spokesman.
Coleman said the ship’s discovery has not delayed the excavation for the Vehicle Security Center, because the Port was able to continue digging on other parts of the site.
Steve Romalewski | July 29, 2010