YORK, Maine — The nor’easter that battered the East Coast over the weekend uncovered a Revolutionary War-era treasure.
The York Maine Police Department posted photos of an old ship buried at Short Sands Beach.
The Portland Press Herald reports that the 51-foot hull is believed to be from a late colonial or early post-colonial sailing vessel, meaning it dates back to between 1750 and 1850.
“Chances are it was wrecked during a big storm, and the hull got buried in the sand, and there was no way they could refloat it, so it just got dismantled,” Leith Smith, a historical archaeologist with the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, told the Boston Globe.
The ship has appeared from time to time over the years. It last appeared after a storm in March 2013, and, before that, the powerful Patriots Day storm in 2007. York Police Chief Douglas Bracy told the paper that they push sand back over the wreck when it gets exposed, usually keeping it about six or seven feet below the surface.
It first made news when it was exposed in the 1950s.