[URBAN NOTE] "Early 19th-century schooner discovered in condo development site"
The Toronto Star's Alyshah Hasham wrote about the discovery of a schooner nearly two centuries old near Fort York in a condo development site.
It is the oldest ship ever discovered in Toronto, an early 19th-century schooner found this week by archeologists doing a routine exploration of the site for a condo development near Fort York Blvd. and Bathurst St.
It the ship’s day, everything south of Front St. would have been underwater, with several wharves jutting into the lake, the largest of which was the Queen’s Wharf, a major commercial hub built in 1833.
“We suspect this ship was scuttled deliberately to provide a scaffold for the workers building the wharf,” said David Robertson, senior archeologist at Archeological Services Inc.
The archeological dig began in early March with the intent of documenting the wharves built there in the early 1800s, Robertson said. On Monday, they discovered the wooden skeleton of the schooner.
Only a small portion of the ship remains: the ship’s keel, or spine - which runs about 15 metres from bow to stern - and a portion of the hull.
Patty Winsa wrote earlier this week about how the site was and will be preserrfved.
It is the oldest ship ever discovered in Toronto, an early 19th-century schooner found this week by archeologists doing a routine exploration of the site for a condo development near Fort York Blvd. and Bathurst St.
It the ship’s day, everything south of Front St. would have been underwater, with several wharves jutting into the lake, the largest of which was the Queen’s Wharf, a major commercial hub built in 1833.
“We suspect this ship was scuttled deliberately to provide a scaffold for the workers building the wharf,” said David Robertson, senior archeologist at Archeological Services Inc.
The archeological dig began in early March with the intent of documenting the wharves built there in the early 1800s, Robertson said. On Monday, they discovered the wooden skeleton of the schooner.
Only a small portion of the ship remains: the ship’s keel, or spine - which runs about 15 metres from bow to stern - and a portion of the hull.
Patty Winsa wrote earlier this week about how the site was and will be preserrfved.