Digging up city streets can lead to all types of discoveries. Construction crews working on a road project in a Florida city’s downtown made the surprising discovery of a 19th-century boat beneath the ground.
The Florida Department of Transportation said that crews were working on a drainage improvement project in the area of King Street and State Road A1A in downtown St. Augustine, Florida, when they came across some wood. Shortly after, they realized the timber was part of a well-preserved wooden ship.
Southeastern Archaeological Research, otherwise known as SEARCH, had been contracted before the start of the project to handle any historical discoveries that might be found during the dig. The team is now working on exhuming the boat, which “has the characteristics of a locally built craft, most likely used in fishing or maybe general carrying trade,” according to SEARCH Vice President James Delgado.
Delgado said the team has also found other objects at the site besides the 20-foot-long boat, including an old leather shoe.
“We’ve seen fragments of old ceramics containers, bottles, rusty bits of iron, as well as cuts of bone, possibly from someone’s chops they had for dinner. They may have just scraped the plate into the water,” Delgado said.