Mystery of the shipwreck that was uncovered under 9/11 ruins

Next week will mark the 23^rd anniversary of the devastating 9/11 attacks and the world has never quite been the same since.

People were left in mourning, air travel was altered and security focusing on terrorism was totally ramped up.

But after the World Trade Center was left totally destroyed it wasn’t until a years months later when an odd finding was made there.

Under the 9/11 ruins, a mysterious shipwreck was uncovered.

It was found by construction workers when they were rebuilding the New York site in 2010 and found the old wooden ship in the rubble.

This, of course, spiralled into a mystery as people could not wrap their heads around how a centuries-old vessel ended up 22-feet below the Twin Towers.

Years after 9/11, a strange discovery was made beneath the rubble (ABC)

So, archaeologists got to work and after four years of digging, analysing, and studying, they were able to determine the ship had been built in the 1770s - around the same era as the Declaration of Independence.

Researchers also determined the type of oak used to build the ship would have come from Philadelphia.

Strangest of all was that the rings on the wooden hull matched other samples of wood rings that had been used to build Independence Hall, where both the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were signed.

READ MORE:

HAUNTING 9/11 RECORDINGS SHOW HOW TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS TRIED TO HANDLE IT

MAN EXPLAINS WHY HE'S ONLY JUST SHARED 9/11 FOOTAGE

The mysterious ship was later identified as a Hudson River sloop, which would have been designed by the Dutch to carry cargo and passengers over the Hudson river's rocky floor.

So, how on earth did it end up there?

Well, it's believed that, after 20 to 30 years of service, the ship was sailed to the lower Manhattan area where it sunk.

Historians still aren't sure whether the ship sank accidentally, or was purposefully submerged.

In 2010, when construction workers were rebuilding the site, they stumbled upon an old wooden ship (LMDC/Columbia University)

In the decades that followed, the ship's remains were covered with rubbish, debris, and other materials like rock and soil that were used to expand the area of Manhattan.

Oysters were also found on the hull of the ship, suggesting it was submerged for quite some time before it was buried with trash and landfill to form the land that the Twin Towers would eventually be built on.

Speaking to CNN about the discovery back in 2014, archaeologist Molly McDonald, who was among those who first discovered the ship, said: "It’s such an intense site already based on its recent history, so to be in the midst of this urban, modern, very fraught location, and then to be sitting on what was a river bottom, with clams and fish, and the smell of low tide, was really an amazing juxtaposition."

Today, the remains of the ship are being conserved and exhibited in Albany at the New York State Museum, so you can marvel at the bizarre discovery for yourself.