Members of the Heartland Research team have just returned from traveling thousands of miles to visit the Phoenician Ship Museum in Montrose, Iowa, and the woodworking mill that has begun the processing of the 50,000 pounds of Cedar of Lebanon logs from the Tyler Arboretum in Media, Pennsylvania. The collections of cedar logs and the first cutting of slabs have piqued our interest greatly. We look forward to using the famous cedar that was used anciently to build ships. That cedar today is very rare and precious.

We expect that 100,000s of people will come to Iowa to see, feel and smell the cedar that was so important for the ship’s design and function. We will soon prepare the cut list for the decking. Using dowels from olive wood, we will peg the cedar deck joints to the ship. The joining of the two woods in the decking will be a sight that people will travel from around the globe to see.

We are putting the pieces back together. The world will see how Captain Philip Beale sailed 30,000 nautical miles to show how the Phoenicians 2,000
before Christ had the technology and skill to cross the Atlantic from the Old to the New World. The ship and its recontruction will change our understanding of the history of ancient America.

Tomorrow we will report on the distillation of Cedris lebani pure oil from the sawdusk that came from the milling of the slabs from logs.