March/April 2015 Issue

NEW JERSEY: While building a wall to protect coastline hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, workers encountered the remains of what appears to be a 19th-century shipwreck. Authorities have decided not to disturb the site further, but a telling artifact suggests that it might be the remains of Ayrshire, a Scottish brig full of Irish and English immigrants that went down in a storm in 1850. The artifact could be part of a locally invented pulley system—like an old-fashioned clothesline—that was used to rescue almost all the passengers. —Samir S. Patel

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO: In 1677, the French and the Dutch fought over strategically important Rockley Bay in Tobago. By the time the smoke cleared, 2,000 men were dead and 14 ships sunk. Until now, not a single ship has been discovered there. Marine archaeologists looking for evidence of the battle have found a concentration of seven cannons, 72 clay pipes, four forks, and a Westerwald stoneware jug depicting Alexander, David, and Joshua. The evidence points to Huis te Kruiningen, a 130-foot-long Dutch warship that was scuttled to avoid capture by the French. —Samir S. Patel

CHILE: The people of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) migrated to their remote South Pacific home from the west around a.d. 1200. Analysis of the genes of 27 descendants of those who created the famed moai statues confirms Polynesian ancestry, and also reveals European and Native American genetic markers. The European traits almost surely date to after European contact in 1722. The same may be true of the Native American genes, but statistical analysis suggests the Polynesian natives could have encountered Native Americans as early as 1280. This is the first human genetic evidence of such contact with the South American mainland.