Visitors to Alexandria’s waterfront can catch a glimpse of the city’s history with a new windowfront exhibit, The Buried Ships of Robinson Landing. This exhibit from Alexandria Archaeology, to be unveiled on April 6, will present models of three buried ships that archaeologists excavated from the area years ago.
The History
In 2018, archaeologists found remnants of the hulls of three ships underground at Robinson Landing, along with many other historic artifacts.
“They likely date to the late 18th, maybe early 19th century,” says Eleanor Breen, city archaeologist. “These ships were used as landfill, so they’re not shipwrecks that you would typically find at the bottom of a river or the bottom of the ocean, but instead, they were repurposed at the end of their sailing lives as part of the extension of Alexandria’s shoreline out into the deeper channel of the Potomac River.”
The ships were likely used by merchants bringing goods to and from Alexandria’s ports, Breen says. One of them is even thought to be “the largest 18th century merchant ship that’s ever been archaeologically recovered,” she says.
This wasn’t Alexandria’s first discovery of this kind. A similar excavation of one ship happened in 2015 at the site of the Hotel Indigo.
When archaeologists found the hulls at the Robinson Landing site, researchers carefully scanned and documented each piece before moving them offsite for safe storage.
Currently, the hulls are stored in an unlikely place — underwater. Archaeologists have placed them in the bottom of a pond in Ben Brenman Park, a mid-term storage solution that will keep them safe until additional research or conservation efforts can take place.
The Exhibit
This new exhibit, put on by Alexandria Archaeology and the Robinson Landing Property Owners Association, shows scale models of the three vessels, demonstrating what they would have looked like in their time. It’s at the corner of the Strand and Pioneer Mill Way, on the same block where the vessels were discovered.
You won’t need tickets or a reservation to see them — the exhibit is designed to be viewed from the sidewalk any time, complete with signs explaining the history of the ships, their excavation, and the archaeologists’ work.
“The idea is really to show visitors and residents of Alexandria how archaeologists do the work that we do, and that’s taking a partial piece of the past that’s excavated from the ground and interpreting history from that,” Breen says.
Using scans that the project team made during the excavation, archaeologists made 3D printed models of each of the ships’ hulls. The remainder of the ships are represented with wire, based on what archaeologists believe they would have looked like.
“It’s important to note that the archaeologists found pieces of the ship, they didn’t find a whole ship in the ground, and it’s from these pieces that we’ve extrapolated or interpreted what they would look like when they sailed,” Breen says.
There will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday, April 6, with archaeologists and city officials on hand to talk about the ships and Alexandria’s history.
This exhibit is part of the rollout of Alexandria’s 275th-anniversary celebration, which officially begins with a proclamation from Mayor Justin Wilson that day.
For those who want to learn more about archaeology in the city, the Alexandria Archaeology Museum is nearby in the Torpedo Factory Art Center. A scale model of the ship from the Hotel Indigo site is on display in the Alexandria Archaeology Museum.
Feature image courtesy Office of Historic Alexandria
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