The appearance of a huge overturned ship, apparently ancient, on the coast of the southwestern tip of Newfoundland, intrigues and mobilises today residents and experts of this Canadian province.
The wreckage is visible just metres from the shore of Cape Ray Beach, especially at low tide, notes CTV News.
The discovery is attracting a steady stream of local admirers who flock to examine the long, curved planks and the wooden pegs that hold them together.
According to experts, the beaches along that corner of Newfoundland have eroded substantially in recent years.
Also, the effect of post-tropical storm Fiona, which swept through the area on September 24, 2022, may have helped dig the ship out of its sandy grave, and each subsequent storm would have loosened it further, says Neil Burgess, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Shipwreck Preservation Society.
Burgess estimates that the ship was built in the 19th century, because of the wooden pegs, and the copper dowels in the wreck, each more than two centimetres wide, that were used to fasten the hull planks.
The surfaced hull is about 24 metres long and not complete, meaning the ship itself was even longer, he added.
The seabed around Newfoundland is littered with “thousands” of wrecks and they surface from time to time, he said. But that doesn’t make the Cape Ray wreck any less exciting.
Cape Ray was part of a busy route centuries ago and the wreck could have come from anywhere, experts warn.
