The mysterious 24-meter-long object on the beach, the theories and the response of the experts

Many question marks were created by a mysterious object that was spotted on a beach Florida. Last month, some people noticed the strange object made of wood and metal about 24 meters long, sticking out of the sand at Daytona Beach Shores. Conspiracy theories have been around, but archaeologists now say it was shipwreckprobably his merchant ship 19th century.

Some agreed with the experts that it could be part of a shipwreck, there were others who thought it was bleachers built decades ago, for games held on the beach, while others wondered if it could be the remains of a pier. This week, the mystery solved. A team of archaeologists excavated an 18-meter trench, revealing a naval ship, with curved wood and joints filled with sand. “It’s definitely a ship”, Chuck Meide, a marine archaeologist, said Friday. “There’s no way it’s not a ship,” he said.

The “buried” secrets of Florida’s maritime past are regularly revealed by shifting sands, ebb and flow, and tide but also after heavy storms. In an interview as he prepared to examine another wreck previously discovered on Little Talbot Island, Mr. Meide said the latest find was likely a privately owned merchant ship since 1800. As is often the case with shipwrecks, there are more questions than answers… but the knowledge of historians sea ​​routes it helps. If the Daytona Beach Shores wreck brought fruitswas probably heading north from the caribbean, said Mr. Meide, director of the research department of St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum in St. Augustine, Fla. If he had started from the north, he probably would have construction materials as cargo, he reported.

“Right now the wreck is being buried again,” Mr Meide said. “It’s nested in a moist matrix of sand and has been buried for over a hundred years. As much as remains moist even in the dark, it will last almost forever,” he said.