The slideshow above highlights just a few of the artifacts excavated from two important maritime features discovered at the site.

Two locations in the central and northern portions of the project parcel contained numerous ship timbers, along what was originally the tidal boundary of the Yerba Buena Cove shoreline. Findings at these locations consisted of structural remnants and scattered ship timbers and ship-related materials associated with Charles Hare's ship breaking operations. The first feature consisted of 32 complete or partial wood ship timbers and ship-related materials. The average depth of the feature was 21 feet below the site datum (i.e. below surface grade). Feature components included a wood barrel, one breast hook, two pieces of dead wood, one cant frame set, three floors, two double frame sets, nine futtocks, three futtock fragments, one keel fragment, one keelson fragment, one windlass, one windlass bitt, two pieces of sacrificial planking and five wood remnants that could not be identified.

The second feature encompasses a portion of Hare's ship breaking yard that was located in the northeast corner of the project area near Spear Street. Ten ship timbers were found in an area that measured 28 feet north-south by 27 feet east-west.

The artifacts catalogued in association with these features reflect both the refuse left behind by the ship breaking yard's laborers as well as the debris introduced during the fill episode that followed the ship breaking era. Although the artifacts recovered from the feature generally reflect the date range attributed to the feature (1851-1857), very few artifacts provided independent dates of manufacture.




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