In 1982, archaeologists conducting a pre-construction excavation in lower Manhattan’s financial district discovered the remains of an 18th century sailing ship. They called in nautical archaeologists including Warren Riess of the University of Maine and the author of this volume. Given only one month to extract the ship’s remains, a large crew recorded and recovered much of the remains of the ship, which they tentatively identified as the Princess Carolina, built in Charleston in 1817. It was scuttled in the 1850s.
For the next 30 years Riess and his colleagues analyzed the ship’s remains and conducted historical research to try to determine the ship’s origins. This volume presents the analysis of the vessel’s design and construction, which allowed the team to build a scale model of the ship. It is an important addition to the study of early 19th century ship building, and it provides insights about commerce and transportation of the era. It is richly illustrated with 19 photographs and 29 line drawings that allow the reader to understand how the ship was built.
