考古学家原本以为已在马萨诸塞州海岸发现一处历史沉船——但仔细观察后，却揭开了一个新谜团。
Archaeologists thought they had identified a historic shipwreck along the Massachusetts coast — but a closer look revealed a new mystery.
九月下旬，一场强劲的东北风暴在南塔基特海岸暴露出风化的木质梁木，一处历史沉船的残骸引起全国关注。
In late September, the remains of a historic shipwreck captured national attention after a powerful nor'easter exposed weathered wooden beams along the shore of Nantucket.
当时，官员们怀疑这些残骸属于沃伦·索耶号，这是一艘三桅纵帆船，于1884年沉没，其残骸此前曾在2022年和2023年于同一地区被记录，据美联社报道。
At the time, officials suspected the wreckage belonged to the Warren Sawyer, a three-masted schooner that sank in 1884 and whose remains had previously been documented in the same area in 2022 and 2023, according to The Associated Press.
南塔基特岛附近发现沉船残骸，7年渔船之谜浮现令人不安的线索。据马萨诸塞州水下考古资源委员会（BUAR）称，该船载有1115捆棉花和28吨废铁，从新奥尔良前往波士顿，于1884年12月22日搁浅。
HAUNTING CLUES EMERGE IN 7-YEAR FISHING BOAT MYSTERY AFTER WRECKAGE FOUND OFF ISLAND The ship was carrying 1,115 bales of cotton and 28 tons of scrap iron from New Orleans to Boston when it ran aground on Dec. 22, 1884, according to the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources (BUAR).
船长和七名船员获救，南塔基特居民花了两周时间打捞了数百捆棉花。另一场风暴最终将这艘船撕碎。
The captain and seven crew members were rescued, and Nantucket residents spent two weeks recovering hundreds of bales of cotton. Another storm eventually tore the vessel apart.
但140多年后，一项新发现使故事变得复杂，官员们上周宣布，这些残骸与先前发现的沃伦·索耶号残骸不符。
But over 140 years later, a new discovery complicated the story when officials announced last week that the wreckage did not match previously discovered remains of the Warren Sawyer.
水下机器人专家揭示“沉船之城”隐藏在主要城市湖泊之下。在10月8日的新闻稿中，伊根海事研究所表示，考古学家确定这些残骸与2022年和2023年在附近发现的沃伦·索耶号残骸不符。
UNDERWATER ROBOTICS EXPERT REVEALS 'SHIPWRECK CITY' HIDING BENEATH MAJOR URBAN LAKE In an Oct. 8 news release, the Egan Maritime Institute said archaeologists determined that the wreckage did not match remains of the Warren Sawyer found nearby in 2022 and 2023.
相反，在10月7日的评估之后，州考古学家确定，这些残骸似乎是一艘长50英尺的大型商船的一部分，可追溯到19世纪末或20世纪初。
Instead, following an Oct. 7 assessment, state archaeologists determined the remains appear to be a 50-foot-long section of a large merchant vessel dating to the late 19th or early 20th century.
该船的身份仍然未知，研究人员现在正转向历史记录，希望能识别出这艘船。
The vessel's identity remains unknown, and researchers are now turning to historical records in the hopes of identifying the ship.
BUAR主任兼首席考古学家大卫·罗宾逊告诉福克斯新闻数字版，有几个线索让他对残骸的最初鉴定产生了怀疑。
David Robinson, director and chief archaeologist of the BUAR, told Fox News Digital that several clues led him to question the wreckage's original identification.
一组令人震撼的新照片揭示了探险家欧内斯特·沙克尔顿爵士去世时所乘坐的船只。罗宾逊在检查时发现，这艘船的木制肋骨比此前已确认的“沃伦·索耶号”残骸中的肋骨更为粗壮。
HAUNTING NEW IMAGES REVEAL THE FINAL SHIP WHERE EXPLORER SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON DIED During his examination, Robinson noticed the ship's wooden ribs were larger than those found in the previously documented remains of the Warren Sawyer.
他还发现两艘船所使用的木材种类存在差异，且船上的一些铁制连接件似乎是在“沃伦·索耶号”于1884年沉没之后才被安装上去的。
He also found differences in the types of wood used to construct the vessels, along with iron fastenings that appeared to date to after the Warren Sawyer sank in 1884.
“这些线索让我们推测，这艘船很可能并非‘沃伦·索耶号’，”罗宾逊说道。
"So those clues led us to believe that this probably was not from the same vessel and not Warren Sawyer," Robinson said.
据罗宾逊推测，这艘沉船可能是一艘纵帆驳船——这种商船在19世纪末至20世纪初常被用于在美国东海岸运输货物。
The wreckage may have come from a schooner barge, a type of merchant vessel commonly used to transport cargo along the East Coast during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Robinson said.
虽然马萨诸塞州的海岸线上时常会发现沉船残骸，但罗宾逊指出，此次发现的残片尺寸相当罕见。
Although shipwreck remains regularly emerge along the Massachusetts coastline, Robinson said the size of the newly discovered fragment makes it unusual.
“更罕见的是，这次发现的残片尺寸巨大，是一块长50英尺、宽11英尺的船体侧板，最近才在楠塔基特岛附近露出海面，”他补充道。不过，他也提醒称目前对这艘船的身份判定仍不确定。
"What's more unusual is for those remains to be a large piece of wreckage like the 50 by 11 foot piece of the side of a ship's hull we saw recently exposed on Nantucket," he said. CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE NEWS However, he cautioned that the identification remains uncertain.
“这艘船未必就是纵帆驳船；实际上，这类船只更有可能被拖行通过楠塔基特海峡，而非直接驶向岛屿南部的公海，”他说道。
"This particular vessel might not be a schooner barge as it would be more likely that schooner barges would be towed through Nantucket Sound rather than the open ocean south of the island," he said.
“目前我们所能做的，就是尽可能缩小可能的船只范围，再结合历史与考古证据来推断结论。” 罗宾逊还提到，楠塔基特岛发现的这艘沉船也是马萨诸塞州首艘被纳入沉船监测计划的船只；该计划旨在鼓励公众协助研究人员追踪海岸线上不断移动的沉船残骸。最后，罗宾逊着重强调了保护沉船这一历史遗迹的重要性。“每一艘沉船背后都承载着一段独特的历史故事，”他总结道。
"About the best we can hope for is to maybe narrow down a list of possible candidates and apply a weight of evidence approach to see what conclusions can be drawn from the available historical and archaeological evidence." The Nantucket wreckage was also the first in Massachusetts to receive a tag under a shipwreck monitoring program that allows members of the public to help researchers track remains as they move along the coastline, he said. Above all, Robinson emphasized the importance of preserving shipwrecks as pieces of history. "Each of these shipwrecks that we see have a story to tell," he said.
“因此，我们务必尽可能深入地研究、记录并向他们学习，同时以任何长者都应得到的悉心关怀与尊重来对待他们。” 本文报道由美联社提供。
"Therefore, it's important for us to study, document and learn as much as we can from them and to treat them with the considerable care and respect that any elder would deserve." The Associated Press contributed reporting.