A hurricane erosion has revealed a huge wooden shipwreck buried under a Florida beach dating back to the 1800s.
Tourists and lifeguards found the wooden shipwreck, which is between 80ft to 100ft, poking out of the sand over Thanksgiving weekend in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida, US.
The discovery was made after the recent storms of Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole which caused the 200-year shipwreck to be washed up on Florida's East Coast.
The structure also appeared in front of homes left crumbled from last month's Hurricane Nicole.
Chuck Meide, a maritime archaeologist who led an archeological team from St. Augustine on Tuesday, said: “Whenever you find a shipwreck on the beach it’s really an amazing occurrence.
"There’s this mystery, you know. It’s not there one day, and it’s there the next day, so it really captivates the imagination.”
Florida had been battered by two recent hurricanes including Hurricane Ian in late September which made landfall on the southwest coast before moving over central Florida.
More recently, Hurricane Nicole devastated a large portion of Volusia County’s coastline in early November and left dozens of homes collapsed into the sea - after already being hit by Hurricane Ian.
Mr Meide said the discovery is rare but not unique due to the intense hurricane seasons, he added: "It’s a rare experience, but it’s not unique, and it seems with climate change and more intense hurricane seasons, it’s happening more frequently.”
On Monday and Tuesday, members of the archeological team dug up the sand and made a shallow trench around the wooden timbers.
In addition, they measured the structure and sketched the ship in a ploy to solve the 200-year mystery shipwreck.
The team initially used shovels but then changed to trowels and eventually their hands as more of the boat became exposed - in an effort not to try and not damage any of the wooden structure.
Arielle Cathers, one of the members of the team, said: “It’s going a lot quicker today but it does take a lot of time. You want to go really carefully.”
Mr Meide, the director of the research arm of St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum in Florida, said he is convinced the structure is a shipwreck because of how it was built.
He believes the materials used such as iron bolts were also an indication of the shipwreck.
However, there are no plans to remove the ship from Daytona Beach Shores as the cost would be huge.
Instead the shipwreck will be left in the sand, which will keep it protected.
The maritime archaeologist said: “We will let Mother Nature bury the wreck. That will help preserve it. As long as that hull is in the dark and wet, it will last a very long time, hundreds of more years.”
