ancient canoe discoveries - Florida

[Odyssey]

Came across this in the news. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/28/florida-ancient-canoes

 

[gumpus]

Fascinating canoe. Beautiful design and craftsmanship. I keep staring at the 3D model and thinking about how it compares to modern canoes and my take is that the design is pretty much just like modern canoes except it has much less flare. It looks like the waterline width is very narrow.

 

[tketcham]

I thought of this canoe when I saw the photo of the discovery...


Mike Galt's Lotus BJX

and below is the ancient canoe...

 

[gumpus]

Nice. I recently paddled my Blackhawk Zephyr; it's about as lively a boat as I can handle comfortably (kneeling) and the 16th century boat looks much less stable.

 

[Erica]

When I was in Indonesia and in Costa Rica I stepped into boats holding hands with the angels because they looked so unstable and overloaded.

And what are the young people doing to the boat?

 

[clemency]

Neat. Not sure classifying the 16th century as "ancient" is accurate though.

And what are the young people doing to the boat?

Used to be that preserving waterlogged wood meant soaking the item in polyethylene glycol (PEG). The technology may have changed since I was (very peripherally) involved, but I think the two techs are injecting something similar into cracks in the hull while simultaneously vacuuming up overflow. Regardless, something definitely involved with the preservation/conservation process which involves replacing the water in the wood cells with something more stable. There's another image circulating of them working on outside of the hull.

 

[gumpus]

And what are the young people doing to the boat?

The boat was found 3 years ago and we have only tidbits of info. Iron tools used. Tree used predates iron tools. Could be a 9 foot pirate ship. Perhaps we have a site member that could visit the boat and get a thorough update. Maybe someone that lives in the state. How far is it?

 

[Erica]

The boat was found 3 years ago and we have only tidbits of info. Iron tools used. Tree used predates iron tools. Could be a 9 foot pirate ship. Perhaps we have a site member that could visit the boat and get a thorough update. Maybe someone that lives in the state. How far is it?

Where is it? And I thought these things weren’t on display.

 

[Gamma1214]

Could be a 9 foot pirate ship.

Now, there's an idea... might have to install a mast on the next stripper & fly a jolly roger. (though I doubt the beavers will be impressed)