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Martin-Benito, Courtesy of the LowerManhattan Development CorporationIt was clear the wood ofthe ship came from thePhiladelphia/centralNew Jersey region, andtherefore, most likelyfrom the same forest.They had discovered theplace; next came thequestion of time.Link back to contents pageindividual differences. Trees are like people.Each has a different personality, and whilethey respond differently to changes in theenvironment they have the same generalresponse…If you starve a group of peoplethey get grouchy but by varying degrees.”Each sample from the Adrian offered a“barcode of tree rings that floated in time,”Martin-Benito describes. First the team hadto make a master chronology of the ship,then compare it to the oak masters fromNorth American regions. “It’s such a powerfultechnique, and in a way so simple. Yousee the rings, you see the growth, and youcan gather so much information about atime when no one was measuring anything,when there were no forest records at all.”The lab’s oak chronologies were from themid-Hudson Valley, central New Jersey,and northern New Jersey, among other areas.Looking back on the project, Pedersonis unsure exactly why, beyond instinct orhappenstance, they began with the Philadelphiamaster chronology. But when theymatched the chronologies, the Adrian’s patterns“started to lock in beautifully.” It wasclear the wood of the ship came from thePhiladelphia/central New Jersey region, andtherefore, most likely from the same forest.They had discovered the place; next camethe question of time.No sample of wood from a ship is perfectfor dating. The timber has been carved,shaped, and manipulated for construction,losing the important outer ring that marksa tree’s final year. To complicate matters,the Adrian had slowly deteriorated over thecourse of its time underground, further rottingaway rings. A few of the samples, however,were convexly curved, showing a portionof sub wood, the last set of functionalrings in a tree. Thus, the only rings missingfrom these samples were the last few. Withthis evidence, Martin-Benito and Pedersonwere confident they could date the woodwithin a range of a few years. The last ringof the samples was formed in 1773, so theAdrian’s timber was harvested in the early1770s and the ship was likely built within ayear or two of that date. The Tree-Ring Labsent its report to AKRF and the informationwas added to the conclusions of othersworking to flesh out the ship’s history.The lab’s dating supported the findings ofthe maritime historian studying the Adrian.The ship appeared to be constructed in away that was, as Pederson was told, like “ajigsaw puzzle, less sophisticated or industrializedthan one would find in a ship built ina major urban shipyard.” The constructionof the ship was consistent with rural methods,like those used in smaller shipyardsin central New Jersey. Its rural associationcorroborated the lab’s findings that the timbercame from one forest. Pathologists alsostudied evidence such as the shipwormsin the remains to determine what the shipwas used for and where it traveled. Initialfindings pointed to the ship being used fortrade, possibly along the eastern seaboardand in the Caribbean. The recent discoverythis summer of the vessel’s bow, however,has led to another theory: that the ship wasa British troop carrier. The USS Adrianwas taken to the Maryland ArchaeologicalConservation Laboratory in St. Leonard forpreservation and is now housed at the Centerfor Maritime Archaeology and Conservationat Texas A&M. She will continue to bestudied, adding to our understanding of thebeginnings of commerce and transport inAmerica.The future of the samples at the Tree-Ring Lab will also be productive. The den-6 Superscript
sity of the rings in the samples is notable,and Pederson is looking forward to one daystudying them further to understand betterthe history of the region’s ecology. “Thebeauty of tree rings, for me, is that you takesome samples from a forest, and you canuse them to answer a variety of questionsabout ecology, the climate, how the treesinteract…it really pays off.” The timber’stree-ring data will be added to the Philadelphiamaster chronology, which will in turnbe added to the North American droughtatlas to reconstruct the drought history ofthe region.The discovery of the USS Adrian and thework of Pederson, Martin-Benito, and theirfellow researchers brought the Tree-RingLab a great deal of attention. This interviewwas Pederson’s third on the project. Dendrochronologydoes not usually garner suchinterest. “I think the biggest deal about theproject [for us] was the response people hadwhen the ship was first discovered. Theywere really fascinated and excited, and thatcaught me a little off-guard.” Not only hadit been thirty years since such a discoveryhad been made in Manhattan, but the ship’sconnection with the World Trade Center sitealso increased interest. After the Tree-RingLab was brought to the project, Pedersonvisited the site. “It was surreal to be downin the pit, to look around, and to think ofwhat had been there.” For the public, aneighteenth-century shipwreck may havebeen a welcome and romantic change fromthe memory of more recent happenings atthe site. Whatever the reasons for the ship’ssparking such curiosity and thrill, it is clearthat the Adrian vividly testifies to the layeredhistory of New York City and the ever-evolvinglife of Manhattan.Courtesy of the Lower ManhattanDevelopment CorporationSuperscript 7Link back to contents page
Page 2: CONTENTS1 Message from the Dean2 De
Page 5 and 6: and Dendrochronologyby Kristin Bali
Page 7: Pederson, Courtesy of the Lower Man
Page 11 and 12: and the Digital Ageinstitutions in
Page 13 and 14: One concern among doctoral students
Page 15 and 16: “It is perhaps not up to the stud
Page 18 and 19: Link back to contents page16 Supers
Page 20 and 21: What differed this year in Albany t
Page 22 and 23: When Intellect MeetsLink back to co
Page 25 and 26: the towers collapsed. Furthermore,
Page 27 and 28: periences. They had been working no
Page 29 and 30: Manhattan or involved in the recove
Page 31 and 32: “I became involved to give back t
Page 33 and 34: Alumni interested in connecting (or
Page 35 and 36: I’ve applied it to my work to dev
Page 37 and 38: How have you applied your degreewor
Page 39 and 40: After Tobacco: What Would Happen If
Page 41 and 42: DissertationsDepositedRecentlyAnthr
Page 43 and 44: IEOR: Operations ResearchYu Hang Ka
Page 45 and 46: Naira Musallam, Examining thepercei
Page 47 and 48: Professors IOANNIS MYLONOPOU-LOS, A
Page 49 and 50: The GSAS Alumni Association invites
Page 51: Superscript 49Link back to contents

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