ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA—The Flagship reports that experts from the Naval History and Heritage Command’s Underwater Archaeology Branch (UAB) assisted city archaeologist Francine Bromberg with the study of timbers from an eighteenth-century ship unearthed at a construction site in Alexandria late last year. “We are recording each one of the timbers so that we can learn about the ship construction and see if there are any maker’s marks or other indications of specific construction techniques,” said UAB archaeologist George Swartz. He noted that the ship had been built by hand with thousands of trunnels, or wooden pins that connected the timbers and swelled when exposed to moisture to form a watertight seal. Schwarz thinks that parts of the ship were probably reused to make buildings and furniture, while the rest was buried in a landfill to build a port for ocean-going vessels for the growing city of Alexandria in the late eighteenth century. To read about the vessel's original discovery, go to "Ship Underground."