CALVERT COUNTY, MARYLAND—Workers removing debris while repairing the US 50 Bridge over the Nanticoke River discovered timbers and alerted archaeologists with the Maryland Department of Transportation’s State Highway Administration. The intact keel, frames, and other timbers from an eighteenth-century vessel were lifted from the river and transferred to the Maryland Archaeology Conservation Laboratory. Researchers found that the ship was held together with wooden pegs and a few iron fasteners, and it had been built with wood from local oak trees. “The inadvertent discovery of this shipwreck is an amazing opportunity to study early maritime history. It reminds us how Marylanders used to move goods and people across the region,” SHA Chief Archaeologist Julie Schablitsky said in a press release. A virtual reconstruction of the vessel will be produced with 3-D laser scans of the timbers. For more on underwater archaeology, go to “History’s 10 Greatest Wrecks.”
