''Tyger'' (; en, Tiger) was the ship used by the Dutch captain

Adriaen Block Adriaen (Arjan) Block (c. 1567 – buried April 27, 1627) was a Dutch private trader, privateer, and ship's captain who is best known for exploring the coastal and river valley areas between present-day New Jersey and Massachusetts during four v ...

during his 1613 voyage to explore the

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North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and the present day

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

. Its remains were uncovered in 1916 during the construction of the

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on land that is now part of the World Trade Center complex.

History

In late summer of 1613, ''Tyger'' had moored in

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...

on the Hudson to trade with the

Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...

Indians along with its partner

Hendrick Christiaensen Hendrick Christiaensen (died 1619) was a Dutch explorer who was involved in the earlier exploration of what became the colony of New Netherland. Life Hendrick Christiaensen was a ship captain and trader employed by the Van Tweenhuysen Company of ...

's ''Fortuyn''. By November, ''Tyger'' had been filled with pelts of beaver, otter, and other skins obtained in barter. In November, an accidental fire broke out and ''Tyger'' rapidly burned to the waterline. The charred hull was beached and all but the small section of prow and keel salvaged in 1916 (q.v.) remained in that location, buried beneath what later became the intersection of Greenwich and Dey Streets in Lower Manhattan. During the fire, the crew salvaged some sails, rope, tools and fittings. Over the winter, Block and his menpresumably with help from the Indiansbuilt ''

Onrust The ''Onrust'' (; en, Restless) was a Dutch ship built by Adriaen Block and the crew of the '' Tyger'', which had been destroyed by fire in the winter of 1613. The ''Onrust'' was the first ship to be built in what is now New York State, and the ...

'' (''Restless''), which they used to explore the

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and

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before returning to

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in 1614.

Rediscovery

In 1916, workmen led by James A. Kelly uncovered the prow and keel of ''Tyger'' while excavating an extension for the New York City Subway

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near the intersection of Greenwich and Dey Streets. The ship and some related artifacts were discovered by Kelly's crew at a depth of about below the streetright where it had been beached on the shoreline of Manhattan Island at the time of the ship's burning."Fragment from the Dutch ship 'Tyger'", Luce Center, New York Historical Society
/ref> Over a period of 150 years after the vessel had been beached, approximately of silt accumulated and, in 1763, a waterfront fill-in project added another . Although the excavation crew was under great pressure to keep the pace of work on schedule, Kelly persuaded his supervisors to allow sufficient excavation to remove about of prow and keel with three of the hull's ribs. The timbers were placed in the seal tank of the

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. In 1943, they were presented to the

Museum of the City of New York A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

for exhibition in the Marine Gallery. The remainder of the ship may still rest approximately below ground, due east of the former site of the North Tower of the

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; however, it might have been dug up in the process of building the World Trade Center. Also, ''Tyger'' appears not to have been the only ship wrecked on the World Trade Center site.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tyger (Ship) Exploration ships of the Dutch Republic New Netherland 17th-century maritime incidents

History

Rediscovery

See also

References