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A replica of the ship Dove, which first brought English settlers to Maryland in 1634, is shown docked at historic St. Mary's City. Image by Pubdog, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Archaeologists uncover English ship remains in Md.

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf
A replica of the ship Dove, which first brought English settlers to Maryland in 1634, is shown docked at historic St. Mary's City. Image by Pubdog, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
A replica of the ship Dove, which first brought English settlers to Maryland in 1634, is shown docked at historic St. Mary’s City. Image by Pubdog, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

ST. MARY’S CITY, Md. (AP) – Archaeologists working with Maryland’s Historic St. Mary’s City museum believe they have discovered the remains of an English ship 10 feet below the St. Mary’s River.

The museum announced Thursday that archaeologist Scott Tucker and a crew of volunteer divers found the remains this summer. They discovered a heavy load of rounded cobblestones in an oval-shaped area more than 50 feet long.

Tucker says the stones are unique and not typical of Maryland. They would have been used as ballast to provide weight and stability to the ship. Tucker says the stones may have come from the North Devon coast of England.

Archaeologists also found a shaped wooden fragment that may have been part of the ship’s bilge pump. But no timbers from the ship’s structure have been uncovered.

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AP-WF-07-25-13 1400GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

A replica of the ship Dove, which first brought English settlers to Maryland in 1634, is shown docked at historic St. Mary's City. Image by Pubdog, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
A replica of the ship Dove, which first brought English settlers to Maryland in 1634, is shown docked at historic St. Mary’s City. Image by Pubdog, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.