From Elizabeth O’Dess
Hello Joe,
My neighbor, Judy Bidwell , mentioned you might be interested in
these photos taken recently at Long Beach. This structure was
unearthed/exposed after the second storm. From what I understand it
surfaces every twenty years or so (the last time was supposedly
1991), but I still haven’t had confirmation of what it was. At first
glance it appears to be the underside of a boat hull, but the exposed
wooden trunnels suggest that this may not be the case….maybe some
part of machinery such as a cog used for moving quarry rock? I would
love to know the answer if one of your reader’s know. I enjoy Good
Morning Gloucester and look forward to seeing it in my “in” box every
morning…keep up the good work.
Good Morning Gloucester 
After the storms expose stuff like this, I get a lot of questions at the shipbuilding museum. The shape of the timbers and the wooden trunnels suggest to me that it is either the lower portion of a ship, or the vessel listed and we’re seeing one side of the frames.
Most of the ships built in this area were trunnel (tree-nail)fastened.
It’s not surprising when you consider dozens if not more ships have piled up on Long Beach over the centuries.
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The trunnels were often very hard locust which lasts longer than the white oak frames themselves. You see lines of trunnels sticking out of many old driftwood hulls. It looks like that might be frames and floors to me, like upside down right around the keel.
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