This was the SS Savannah, the first ship to cross the Atlantic with steam power and whose remains they believe they found centuries later in New York

Weather-beaten remains of a shipwreck that washed up on the shores of an island off the coast of upstate New York after Tropical Storm Ian last fall, have piqued interest from the experts.

They say they are likely part of the SS Savannah, which ran aground and disintegrated in 1821, two years after becoming the first ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean using part steam power.

The approximately 4-square-meter (13-square-foot) wreckage was seen in October off Fire Islanda barrier island that hugs the south shore of Long Island, and are now in the custody of the Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society, which will work with National Park Service officials to identify the remains and put them on public display.

“It was very exciting to find it,” said Betsy DeMaria, a museum technician at Fire Island National Seashore with the park service. “We’re definitely going to have some subject matter experts take a look at it and help us get a better look at what we have here.”

It can be difficult to identify the remains with 100% surebut park service officials said Savannah is a top contender among Fire Island’s known shipwrecks.

Explorers have searched for the Savannah for more than two centuries, but have found nothing that they could definitively link to the Savannah. famous ship. However, the newly discovered remains could very well be a part of the historic shipwreck, said Ira Breskin, a tenured professor at the State University of New York Maritime College in the Bronx. “It makes a lot of sense”.

The evidence includes the 1 to 1.3-inch (2.5 to 3.3 centimeter) wooden dowels holding the planks together in the wreck, which are consistent with a 100-foot (30.5-meter) vessel, park service officials said in a Press release. The Savannah was 98 feet 6 inches (30 meters) long. Also, officials said, the iron spikes on the wreckage suggest a ship built around 1820. The Savannah was built in 1818.

Breskin, author of “The Business of Shipping,” noted that the Savannah’s use of steam power was so advanced for its time that May 24, the start date of her transatlantic voyage in 1819, was designated as the National Maritime Day. “It’s important because they were basically trying to show the feasibility of a steam engine across the pond,” he said.

Breskin said that a nautical archaeologist should be able to help identify the wreckage found on Fire Island, which appears to be from the Savannah. “It’s plausible, and it’s important, and it’s living history if scientists confirm that it’s what we think it is,” he said.

The Savannah, a sailboat equipped with a 90 horsepower steam enginetraveled primarily by sail across the Atlantic, using steam power for 80 hours of the nearly month-long voyage to Liverpool, England.

Crowds cheered as the Savannah sailed from Liverpool to Sweden and Russia and then back to her home port in Savannah, Georgia, but the ship was not a financial success, partly because people were afraid to travel on the hybrid ship. The Savannah’s steam engine was retired and sold after the ship’s owners suffered losses in the Great Savannah Fire of 1820.

The Savannah was carrying cargo between Savannah and New York when it ran aground off Fire Island and later disintegrated. The crew made it safely to shore and were able to salvage the cotton cargo, but the Augusta Chronicle & Georgia Gazette reported that “Captain Holdridge was considerably injured in the wreck.”

Explorers have searched for the Savannah for Two centuries after the tragedy but have not found anything that can be definitively linked to the famous ship.