Possible Civil War Era Ship Discovered After Hurricane Isaac

Hurricanes can be some of the most devastating natural disasters to hit the United States. The hurricane that hit New Orleans a few years ago caused massive devastation flooding. Luckily, Hurricane Isaac, which came ashore recently, didn't do the sort of damage that Hurricane Katrina caused.

Hurricanes can have some interesting side effects in coastal areas by washing things ashore that were hidden off the coast for decades or more, under water and sand. Isaac uncovered a long-lost civil war era ship on a beach in Alabama. The ship was revealed in the sands on the beach near Fort Morgan.

But at this time, it's unclear exactly how old the ship is or what the ship was used for. While some believe the boat was a blockade-runner during the Civil War, others believe that it could be a ship used to smuggle alcohol ashore during prohibition. If the ship were from the prohibition era, it wouldn't be nearly as old as the Civil War era.

It's incredible that under the sand on the beach, the ship hid all these years. It appears that the ship was simply uncovered in the sand after the high surf and lots of rain, rather than washing ashore, but how the ship came to be on the beach is unclear. You can see in the video the huge number of massive nails used to hold the wooden timbers of the ship together. It appears to have been a moderately large ship and it's surprisingly well preserved.

[via Reuters]