This research page concerns the 1986 discovery of a submerged boat in the Sea of Galilee that is estimated to be about 2000 years old. The unusual construction of the boat suggests that it very well may have been designed, even built, by Jesus.
(129:1.2) He spent one week at Tiberias, the new city which was soon to succeed Sepphoris as the capital of Galilee; and finding little to interest him, he passed on successively through Magdala and Bethsaida to Capernaum, where he stopped to pay a visit to his father’s friend Zebedee. Zebedee’s sons were fishermen; he himself was a boatbuilder. Jesus of Nazareth was an expert in both designing and building; he was a master at working with wood; and Zebedee had long known of the skill of the Nazareth craftsman. For a long time Zebedee had contemplated making improved boats; he now laid his plans before Jesus and invited the visiting carpenter to join him in the enterprise, and Jesus readily consented.
(129:1.3) Jesus worked with Zebedee only a little more than one year, but during that time he created a new style of boat and established entirely new methods of boatmaking. By superior technique and greatly improved methods of steaming the boards, Jesus and Zebedee began to build boats of a very superior type, craft which were far more safe for sailing the lake than were the older types. For several years Zebedee had more work, turning out these new-style boats, than his small establishment could handle; in less than five years practically all the craft on the lake had been built in the shop of Zebedee at Capernaum. Jesus became well known to the Galilean fisherfolk as the designer of the new boats.
The Sea of Galilee Boat by Shelly Wachsmann is recommended. This excerpt describes the general nature of the intrigue:
Saskia Praamsma’s review of this topic begins:
“WHEN my friend and fellow UB-reader Joy Brandt and I visited Israel in 1998, we stayed on the Sea of Galilee in a kibbutz called Nof Ginosar. In the Urantia Book, this region south of Capernaum is called Gennesaret. Capernaum is where the boat-making establishment of Zebedee was located, where Jesus worked for more than a year.
In 1986, during a drought that drastically lowered the level of the Sea of Galilee, an ancient boat was discovered in the waters off the shore south of the kibbutz. Experts called to the scene agreed it was indeed an ancient boat and excavations were begun immediately, conducted by the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums assisted by archaeologists and volunteers. …”
See also Wikipedia page: Jesus Boat (Sea of Galilee Boat):
“The Ancient Galilee Boat, also known as the Jesus Boat, is an ancient fishing boat from the 1st century AD, discovered in 1986 on the north-west shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel. The remains of the boat, 27 feet (8.27 meters) long, 7.5 feet (2.3 meters) wide and with a maximum preserved height of 4.3 feet (1.3 meters), first appeared during a drought, when the waters of the Sea (actually a great fresh-water lake) receded. Other than the dating, there is no evidence connecting the boat to Jesus or his disciples. …”