An archaeologist hired by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection will investigate a possible shipwreck found buried in the sand of Normandy Beach in Brick Township recently, officials say.
Some of the wreckage was dug up by a construction crew building a steel wall to protect Brick and Mantoloking from future hurricanes. As they were trying to drive a steel sheet into the sand, an obstruction some 20 feet down broke the pile driver.
Many ships have been lost off the Jersey coast in the past, but Dan Lieb, the curator at the New Jersey Maritime Museum in Wall, told NBC 4 New York it could be the wreck of the Ayershire.
On Jan. 12, 1850, the ship carrying immigrants and a crew totally 202 people foundered off Squan Beach. But lifesavers, using a new device called a "Frances life car" -- an enclosed capsule hung on a rope from shore to ship -- were able to safely rescue all but one of the people on board.
Lieb said the rescues using the new device were "very, very successful," and the life car went on to extensive use in saving people from groundings near shore.
The state says ground-penetrating radar will be used to determine what else may be buried under the sand.
After determining the mystery object's historical value and whether it needs to be dug up, DEP spokesman Bob Considine said the steel wall protection project will be finished, essentially on time and before winter weather sets in.
