The wreck of the British warship that Paul Revere eluded at the start of his famous ride has resurfaced in Cape Cod's shifting sands.
About a dozen timbers from the HMS Somerset III were spotted on a Provincetown beach after erosion from a series of powerful storms that ravaged the Cape Cod beaches in March.
The Somerset was a "British warship that helped shape the course of American history. With 64 mounted guns and a crew of 400, the Somerset brought British power to the North Atlantic and Mediterranean," wrote National Park Service historian William Burke.
Burke said it's been at least 37 years since any part of the Somerset was seen.
"During the American Revolution, her role in the rescue of British troops after the battles of Lexington and Concord, and the bombardment during the Battle of Bunker Hill, influenced the outcomes of both battles," Burke said.
Revere slipped past the Somerset, and its 400-member crew, before beginning his ride in 1775.
The ship sank off the Cape on Nov. 2, 1778. An intense storm drove the Somerset onto the shallow Peaked Hill sand bars. Most of the crew survived and were exchanged for American prisoners.
Federal park officials are seizing the moment by using three-dimensional imaging technology to "digitally preserve" the wreck's visible portions. Burke said the rest of the ship might deteriorate if excavated.
The ship's remains, as those of thousands of other shipwrecks along the Cape Cod National Seashore, are preserved as federally protected archeological resources.
Source: The Boston Channel