shallowdrafts, oars, and sails were better suited
to exploring coastal waters. Captained by
Martín de Rivas and Pedro de Iriarte, the two
piraguas set sail from Veracruz, Mexico, on
Christmas Day 1686, and eventually headed up
the Texas coast. They discovered the wreck of
La Salle’s frigate, La B elle,and continued as far
as Mobile Bay before returning to Veracruz viaNew Mexico and the Gulf Coast B 143
Excavating La Salle’s Ship =
It should be clear by now that discoveries take many forms and explorers come
in many varieties. A centuries-old search for La Belle,the ship of Sieur de La
Salle, was not successful until 20th-century technology aided in the stricken
ship’s discovery. Historians had known for some 300 years that La Bellesank in
1686 in Matagorda Bay along the Texas coast, but exactly where was unknown.
Starting in 1978, scientists from Texas had used sophisticated techniques to
locate the presence of metal underwater, and in 1995 they found a site that
divers soon confirmed was the remains of La Belle,12 feet under the surface.
The usual method of excavating sunken ships involves divers going down,
mapping the site, and then bringing up the remains, piece by piece. For La Belle
it was decided to enclose the site in a cofferdam: two large octagonal walls of
steel, separated by about 20 feet of space that was filled with sand to absorb
seeping water. The space within the inner wall was pumped as dry as possible,
exposing the ship’s remains, buried deep in the muck.
For two years (1996–97), archaeologists supervised the careful removal of
what remained of the wooden hull and the countless artifacts. A fair amount of
the wood was fairly well preserved by the mud, which had kept out bacteria, but
as each piece was removed it had to be kept soaking wet to protect it from dis-
integrating on contact with the air. Eventually the wood was slowly dried and
conserved.
Having such a ship to study was a tremendous gift to marine historians, but
most people would be impressed with the many artifacts found. These range
from lead shot (for weapons) and coiled rope to brass candlesticks and three
handsome bronze cannons. In addition to the expected objects for equipping a
ship and a settlement of those days, many of the objects were clearly intended
for trading with the native Indians: hundreds of thousands of glass beads, small
mirrors, straight pins, wooden combs. Altogether more than a million objects
were salvaged from La Belle.Afairly complete skeleton of a man was also
found; alongside him was a pewter bowl inscribed with C. BARANGE—presum-
ably the name of the dead man.
Does this mean that the last word on La Salle’s expedition has now been
recorded? In fact, historians, scientists, archaeologists, and divers have contin-
ued to search for La Salle’s supply ship, L’Aimable,which sank in the same
waters. Exploration and discovery know no end.\