YORK, ME (RNN) - The nor'easter that savaged the Atlantic coast has unearthed a shipwreck possibly older than the U.S.
The York Police Department posted images taken Monday of the wreck off the coast on Short Sands Beach.
The wreck was uncovered after huge storm waves hit the coast and then retreated.
The remains of the ship is thought to be a Revolutionary War-era ship, either a sloop or a pink, according to Seacoast Online, though it isn't known exacly which ship.
A sloop is a single-masted ship, while a pink is a small ship with a very narrow stern.
Though the vessel had previously been unearthed in February, it typically re-emerges from the sand about once a decade, the Seacoast Online reported. During a 1980 reappearance, marine archaeologist Warren Riess identified the ship as possibly a Revolutary War-era sloop.
The Maine Historical Preservation Commission said about 1,300 shipwrecks in the state have been reported, based mostly on primary or secondary reports of ship losses, with some supported by actual shipwreck sites.
The earliest ship loss in Maine's recorded history occurred 1635, when the British merchant ship "Angel Gabriel" was destroyed by a hurricane while anchored at Pemaquid, the National Park Service said. That ship had originally been built in 1617 as part of Sir Walter Raleigh's last expedition to America.
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