The waves and surge of Hurricane Sandy leveled sand dunes and flooded many houses, but it also exposed the remains of a ship on Fire Island, off of Long Island, New York. The post-Civil War wooden ship was left fully exposed after the storm.
The shipwreck, which is believed to be a cargo vessel built before 1880, is roughly four miles east of Davis Park in the Fire Island National Seashore, according to Newsday.
For a photo of the uncovered remains, Click Here.
The National Park Service is working to identify exactly which ship it is. They believe it is the remains of the Bessie White, which grounded roughly 90 years ago.
OurAmazingPlanet provided a background story on the Bessie White and how it capsized:
"The ship, a four-mast Canadian schooner, went aground in heavy fog about a mile west of Smith's Point, Long Island, in either 1919 or 1922. The men escaped in two boats. One capsized in the surf, injuring one crew member, but everyone (including the ship's cat) made it to shore safely. But the crew couldn't save the 3-year-old ship or its tons of coal. The ship was salvaged in the following weeks," Becky Oskin of OurAmazingPlanet wrote.
This isn't the first time the shipwreck made an appearance. Parts of it were seen poking through the sand previously, such as after a nor'easter in 2006, which revealed a 40-feet chunk of the wreckage. Photos can be seen here. Before that storm, the ship wasn't seen since the 1980's. Now, Sandy left the entire bus-size ship skeleton exposed on the beach.
The ship was covered by a dune, but U.S. Geological Survey coastal geologist Cheryl Hapke told OurAmazingPlanet that Sandy's high waves and winds leveled the dunes on Fire Island and eroded them back 72 feet on average.
The shipwreck is amazing sight to see, but it may not last for too long as it may be buried in sand again. Archaeologists are attempting to document the shipwreck to try to learn more information about it and to try to figure out exactly what ship it was and what time period it came from before it disappears.
"There's so little of it left we may not be not be able to determine which ship it actually is, but we may be able to learn more about its age," an official told OurAmazingPlanet. "It's just a rare treat to see something exposed."
Fire Island was an area that was deeply affected by Hurricane Sandy when it made landfall on October 29. Fire Island is a barrier island and is often damaged by strong storms. Flood waters covered the entire island after Sandy and 80 percent of homes received water damage.
This wasn't the first time that a storm uncovered a shipwreck recently. Back in September, Hurricane Isaac exposed a schooner from 1923 on Gulf Shores, Alabama.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
