Coral

Branching coral called Acropora cervicornis commonly known as staghorn coral. The coral is cream in colour. This is a thick portion of this coral, near the base of the colony. This coral was excavated during the Piermaster's Green Community Dig which investigated the homes of Dock Masters and Pier Masters and their families. Numbers 7, 8 and 10 Albert Parade, were built by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board in 1852 to accomidate staff for the Albert and Canning Docks. The houses were hit by an incendiary bomb during the Second World War. Worn pieces of scleractinian coral colonies once grew in warm tropical seas, probably in the Caribbean Seas. Coral skeletons are formed of hard calcium carbonate which, once dead, gradually breaks down and contribute to the sandy beaches in the Caribbean. It has been suggested that boulders and pieces of coral were dredged from harbours in the Caribbean and used as ballast for ships returning to Liverpool & London. This ballast was later dumped in these ports. This coral may have been given as a gift or collected by the residents of Albert Parade.