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A 32-foot piece of the vessel was found in soil 20 feet under street level,
amid noisy bulldozers excavating a parking garage for the future World Trade
Center. Near the site of so many grim finds — Sept. 11 victims' remains,
twisted steel — this discovery was as unexpected as it was thrilling.
Historians say the ship, believed to date to the 1700s, was defunct by the
time it was used around 1810 to extend the shores of lower Manhattan.
"A ship is the summit of what you might find under the World Trade Center —
it's exciting!" said Molly McDonald, an archaeologist who first spotted two
pieces of hewn, curved timber — part of the frame of the ship — peeking out
of the muddy soil at dawn on Tuesday.
By Thursday, she and three colleagues had dug up the hull from the pit where
a section of the new trade center is being built.
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