Fifteen years ago, workers digging in downtown New York City found something strange underground: pieces of a boat. This boat was built near the time of the Revolutionary War. The boat is now thought to be 250 years old.

After years on the water and underground, researchers try to put the boat back together, like a puzzle. People can watch while they work. The big puzzle is an exhibit at the New York State Museum.

The boat pieces have had a long journey. After the discovery, the pieces went west. Texas A&M University’s Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation first set about preserving the boat.

Each piece spent years in protective fluid. (The fluid slows or even stops decay.) Then, when it was time to try to rebuild the boat, the wood was frozen. That helps remove the moisture. Researchers wrapped the wood in foam. They shipped it back to New York.

Many people got busy. They laid out boat sections like giant puzzle pieces. They spent weeks cleaning the wood with picks and brushes.

Researchers think the boat was made in Philadelphia in 1775. Colonists built 13 gunboats that summer to protect Philadelphia from enemy ships coming up the Delaware River.

“They were really pushing, pushing, pushing to get these boats out there to stop any British that might start coming up the Delaware,” says Peter Fix. He is an associate research scientist at Texas A&M.

It’s even possible that the boat was captured by the British. But that still doesn’t explain how it ended up in—or under—downtown Manhattan.

“Like anything from the past, we have pieces of information,” says Michael Lucas, the museum’s curator of historical archaeology. “We don’t have the whole story.”

Why? We won’t always understand the past. But the Lord knows everything—past, present, and future. He has a purpose for what happened, what is happening, and all that will happen.