Belle Bonanza	February 27, 1998

The 800-pound bronze cannon found on the 300-year-old Belle identified the ship as that of French explorer La Salle. (Courtesy of Texas Historical Commission) [LARGER IMAGE]

Nearly one million items have been recovered from the Belle, one of four ships provided by Louis XIV to René Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle, for his 1684 expedition to search for the mouth of the Mississippi River. Discovered in 1995 in 12 feet of water in Matagorda Bay off the coast of Texas (see "La Salle Ship Sighted," January/February 1996), the ship was excavated under "dry land" conditions using a cofferdam, a watertight structure consisting of two concentric steel-plate walls that permitted seawater to be pumped away from the wreck. The finds include a skeleton, three ornate bronze cannon, a ceramic jar filled with mercury, a ruby ring, navigational dividers with inscribed initials, ceramic fire pots with incendiary devices, more than 700,000 blue, white, and black glass trade beads, bronze rings and candlesticks, wooden casks containing muskets, a wooden crucifix, deer and dog bones, tools, and leather shoes. Though conservation of the artifacts is expected to take three to five years, a facial reconstruction has been completed from the skull, thought to be of a European sailor with stocky build, a broken nose, and cavities. A permanent exhibit in Texas and two traveling shows are being planned for 1999.

Click here for more on the La Salle Shipwreck Project.

© 1998 by the Archaeological Institute of America www.archaeology.org/online/news/belle.html

Share this page:   Share

Stay up-to-date on news and new features on our website. Click here to sign up.

Buy back issues: See what's available!