Posted on 09/04/2022 8:54:02 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Scientists investigating the remains of an old wooden ship off the cold, windy coast of far southern Argentina say it almost certainly is the Dolphin, a globe-trotting whaling ship from Warren, R.I., lost in 1859. Archaeologists have spent years researching the ship’s origin without making a definitive identification, but a new analysis of tree rings in its timbers has provided perhaps the most compelling evidence yet. A team of Argentinian and American researchers just published the findings in the journal Dendrochronologia.
...lead author Ignacio Mundo of Argentina’s Laboratory of Dendrochronology and Environmental History, IANIGLA-CONICET... and scientists at the Columbia Climate School’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory used a huge database of rings from old North American trees to show that the timbers were felled in New England and the southeastern United States just before the ship was built in 1850. Other evidence includes artifacts found near the wreck, and historical accounts from Argentina and Rhode Island. This appears to be the first time tree-ring science has been applied to identify a South American shipwreck...
According to an unpublished manuscript by local Warren historian Walter Nebiker, the Dolphin was built between August and October 1850, of oak and other woods. Normally trees were felled in cold weather a year or so before a ship was built, which in this case would have been between late 1849 and February 1850. Measuring 111 feet long and weighing 325 tons, the Dolphin was launched Nov. 16, 1850. Nebiker described her as “probably the fastest square-rigger of all time.”
(Excerpt) Read more at news.climate.columbia.edu ...
In deeper water near the wreck, next to the diver lies the heavily encrusted, upside-down remains of an iron cauldron, along with bricks from what might have been an oven used to heat blubber. Object to the right may have been a hawse pipe on the deck, where anchor chains passed through.Courtesy PROAS-INAPL
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That harbor is about 10,000 kilometers away from Rhode Island, not 10,000 miles.
Warren Fhode Island, a true whalerman’s town.
They made it through the whole thing without mentioning climate change.
Thanks, AQ. 5300 miles, or about 8500 km, depending on where in Patagonia I suspect.
Rhode Island to Argentina - 4 ways to travel via train, taxi, and plane
https://www.rome2rio.com/s/Rhode-Island/Argentina
Yup, but it was close — “scientists at the Columbia Climate School’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory” ...
A Long-Lost Branch of the Nile Helped in Building Egypt’s Pyramids (paywall)
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/30/science/pyramids-nile-river-construction-egypt.html
Let’s not let a little thing like a paywall get in the way of the spread of archeological knowledge, shall we?
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