• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

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

Home> Community

Updated 15:29 26 Mar 2025 GMTPublished 14:49 23 Mar 2025 GMT

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

The mysterious finding of a wooden ship was found nine years after the devastating 9/11 attacks

Jess Battison

Jess Battison

Next week will mark the 23rd 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.

Advert

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)
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.

Advert

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.

Advert

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 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.

Advert

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.

Featured Image Credit: LMDC/Columbia University

Topics: History, US News, Weird, New York, Archaeology

Jess Battison
Jess Battison

Jess is a Senior Journalist with a love of all things pop culture. Her main interests include asking everyone in the office what they're having for tea, waiting for a new series of The Traitors and losing her voice at a Beyoncé concert. She graduated with a first in Journalism from City, University of London in 2021.

X

@jessbattison_

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

2 hours ago
5 hours ago
a day ago
  • 2 hours ago

    Unsettling reason aeroplane toilets flush in the way they do with disgusting 'blue ice' on some aircraft

    Time to answer that age-old question

    Community
  • 5 hours ago

    'Ghost that screamed' photo taken after boy, 16, died in car crash is 'proof of the afterlife'

    It's thought that his soul was caught on film

    Community
  • a day ago

    Tragic admission over death of girl whose eyes turned black in haunting photo of final moments

    The photographer captured her final hours before she tragically died

    Community
  • a day ago

    The mystery of Amelia Earhart explained as scientists 'finally discover' lost plane after 88 years

    The case of missing pilot Amelia Earhart has captured our imagination for generations

    Community
  • Man's 9/11 footage from 'unseen angle' uploaded after 23 years has been upscaled to 4k
  • Scientists finally solved the mystery of why the Mayans vanished after thousands of years
  • Mystery of McLaren sports car that hasn't moved from hotel in four years may have been solved
  • Man explains why he's only just released new footage of 9/11 after 23 years that shows collapse from 'unseen angle'