Dive Brief:

• Construction workers in Brick, NJ, dug up a 19th-century shipwreck this week as they were excavating a site for a new sea wall.

• Officials put the $23.8 million job on hold after workers struck what they believe is the remains of the Scottish brig Aysrshire, which sunk during a storm on Jan. 12, 1850.

• All but one of the vessel’s English and Irish immigrant passengers were rescued. The event was historic because the Aysrshire’s lifeboat was the first one with a metal roof and hatch to be used in a rescue.

Dive Insight:

Workers have already installed 13,000 linear feet of steel sheet piling for the barrier, but they will miss their Nov. 15 deadline for completing the wall, which is to protect one of the areas hardest hit by Superstorm Sandy.

It hasn't been conclusively determined that the shipwreck is the Aysrshire. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is sending an archeologist to examine the site, and construction will continue near the wreck.