The Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE) and the Museum of the City of New York will jointly conduct research on the remaining remains of a shipwreck found in 1916 during the construction of a subway tunnel in Manhattan. It has long been suspected that this is the wreck of De Tyger, a Dutch merchant ship that sailed under the command of Adriaen Block.
Discovery of De Tyger Ship Timber
In 1916, during the construction of a subway line in Lower Manhattan, a charred keel and three ribs (frames) of a wooden ship were discovered. Based on the location and archaeological context, the ship was identified as De Tyger. The ship departed from Amsterdam in 1613 but was later destroyed by fire while anchored in what is now the harbor of New York.
The discovery of the ship remains is considered an important part of Dutch maritime history in New York, partly because Adriaen Block, the explorer aboard the ship, made the first detailed drawings of the area where New York now lies – but did not at the time. The only surviving parts of the ship were donated to the Museum of the City of New York, where they are now stored in the depot.
Text continues below the photo
Renewed Interest
In recent decades, there has been renewed interest in the origin of the ship timber. On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the city of New York, the wood remains are being re-examined. Maritime archaeologist Martijn Manders and dendrochronologist Marta Domínguez Delmás from the RCE will travel to New York in February to analyze the wood on site in collaboration with museum researchers. The focus is on research into the ships construction, identifying the types of wood, and determining the origin and dating of the wood through dendrochronological research.
“These ship remains connect us directly to the earliest years of New York as a crossroads of cultures and trade. We are proud of the collaboration with the RCE to re-examine this material testimony and gain more insight into the city of the 17th century,” said Stephanie Hill Wilchfort, director of the Museum of the City of New York.
Text continues below the photos
Dutch Shipwrecks Abroad
Prof. Dr. Martijn Manders emphasizes: The RCE is responsible for the research and management of Dutch shipwrecks abroad. These wrecks from different periods can tell us not only a lot about the history of our country but also about the positive and negative relationships we have had with different people around the world. The arrival of the ship Tyger in 1613 marks one of the earliest attempts to make contact with the New World and to map the area that later became New York. Working on the ship remains recovered from the ground in 1916 is incredibly exciting and hopefully our research will shed more light on the origin of the wood, the dating, and the construction of the ship parts.”
Dr. Marta Domínguez Delmás adds: “Tree rings in wooden elements of a shipwreck can reveal the dating and origin of the wood. Although they cannot explicitly prove whether it is De Tyger, they can clearly show when this is NOT the case. Therefore, we will follow an exclusionary approach. If the ship timber dates from after the construction of De Tyger, or if the wood comes from a species not used for shipbuilding in the Dutch Republic, or from an area that did not supply wood for shipbuilding in the Republic in the early 17th century, we can exclude the ship as De Tyger. However, if the wood type, dating, and origin are consistent with the historical context of De Tygers construction, the archaeological finds of the wreck site will also be placed within the same historical context. By putting all the pieces together, we can then reach a substantiated conclusion.”
Collaboration
With this joint research, the RCE and the Museum of the City of New York hope to shed new light on the identity of the ship and the role it played in the early history of New York.