Katie's Archaeology Challenge Report

The Belle: An Archaeological Treasure Trove

In 1683, the explorer Sieur de La Salle convinced 300 French people to go to the New World with him to establish a permanent colony at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Backed by Louis XIV, who hoped that the expedition would be able to establish a French presence in the Gulf, they set sail on August 1, 1684. The expedition had four ships: L'Amiable, a storeship; Saint-Francois, carrying additional supplies; Le Joly, a large warship; and Belle, a small frigate.

The voyage across the Atlantic, expected to take two months, started off well. La Salle's aide Henri Joutel noted in his journal: "Only two of our men died among the more than 50 who were sick. The ship's officers said it had been a long time since they had had such a fortunate crossing."1

Sadly, the expedition's fortunes soon changed for the worse. Near the West Indies, Spanish pirates seized the Saint-Francois. More bad luck soon followed. Relying on inaccurate maps, La Salle missed the Mississippi River by 400 miles. On February 18, 1685, the Belle entered Matagorda Bay in present-day Texas. L'Amiable ran aground in the shallow waters of the bay. Joutel recalled, "According to everyone who was aboard the vessel, the accident was of premeditated design, the handiwork of someone."2 The Joly was sent back to France with about 100 people, possibly people who were dissatisfied with La Salle or people who took one look at the hostile country and decided to go back to France. The remaining colonists set up a temporary camp on Matagorda Island. Unfortunately, conditions at this camp were little better than the conditions they had experienced on board ship. The late Curtis Tunnell, former president of the Texas Historical Commission, explained their situation: "They exchanged the shipboard life for... huts beside an alligator-infested creek. There were all kinds of snakes and animals that they were unfamiliar with. So they traded one kind of misery for another."3

In March 1685, La Salle left the temporary camp to find a site for a colony. He chose a site in today's Victoria County and construction began in April. He called the site Fort St. Louis in honor of the French king. Unfortunately, the colonists continued to die, and by July, only about 100 remained.

In October, La Salle and 50 men departed in canoes to search for the Mississippi. The Belle was to follow with an additional 27 colonists. However, the groups became separated, and when La Salle got back to the bay, the Belle was no more. La Salle was trapped in a virtually uninhabited wasteland without a ship. His only course of action was to find the Mississippi River, follow it to Canada, and find a ship sailing back to France. However, La Salle never reached the river. On March 19, 1686, he was ambushed and killed by a group of his own men. Joutel and four others eventually reached Canada, and returned to France.

What happened to the Belle? That question plagued historians for years. Much of what we know comes from a record found at the shipyard where the Belle was built. "The Belle... La Salle has taken her to the Gulf of Mexico, from which she has not returned. No crew to be assigned to this vessel, because the pilot, who has returned, has stated that the ship no longer exists."4 In his journal, Joutel wrote that the Belle perished in high winds. She may have met her doom in a violent storm, or she may have accidentally run aground. No one knows for sure.

The Spanish found the remains of the Belle the next year. They carried away everything of value, left the ship to rot, and forgot about the wreck. Over the course of 300 years, she has gradually been buried under the muddy waters of Matagorda Bay. No one knew exactly where the Belle lay, until the summer of 1995, when she was finally rediscovered.

"It was archaeology by Braille,"5 said Chuck Meide, one of several initial divers to go down on the wreck. The murky waters of Matagorda Bay made it very difficult to do archaeological work there, but Barto Arnold, the marine archaeologist heading the search, was prepared for that. His interest in the Belle began in 1973, but acquiring funds for an expedition took many years. In early 1995, he finally set out to search for the Belle.

Arnold first scanned the bottom of the bay for magnetic anomalies, which indicate the presence of iron. Because this method cannot detect the age of the metal, it would be necessary for the archaeologists to go down and look at every prospective site. Although this could take several months, the team set out with high hopes. They started at a magnetic anomaly site designated 41MG86. The first few dives yielded a hand-made wooden plank, some cast-lead shot and a bronze belt buckle. Chuck Meide remembers: "I was on the second dive of the day, and I was leading that team. And we were down there searching around, and you have to understand, it's just black as midnight, I mean there's no visibility at all... And you feel around the bottom, and you can't see a thing. I put my hand on [a cannon], and I knew it was something big... the first thing I thought was, 'Oh, man, this is something.' "6 The 700-pound cannon was carefully hauled to the surface. After months of lab cleaning, the seal of the Comte de Vermandios, Admiral of the French Navy in the late 1600s, was revealed. During the time that de Vermandios was Admiral, there was only one French expedition to the Gulf of Mexico: La Salle's. The question was, exactly which ship had the archeologists found?

To find the answer to that question, the archaeologists had to figure out how long the ship was. After careful measurement, they estimated that the ship was about 51 feet long. They then contacted the Corderie Royale, the royal shipyard where many French ships were built. In one old record, they found what they were looking for: a ship called the Belle, which was "built in the Port of Rochefort during the months of May and June 1684, shipping capacity 40-45 tons."7 The record also lists the description of the ship - and the length of the keel: 51 feet.

Now that the ship was identified, the archeologists could begin excavating the Belle. There was one looming obstacle to the excavation, however. The extremely low visibility of the water made it almost impossible to conduct an archaeological investigation. The Texas Historical Commission had a $1.3 million cofferdam built around the Belle. (A cofferdam is built by constructing a wall around the site and then constructing another outer wall. The space between the walls is filled in with sand, and the water inside the inner wall is pumped out.)

The cofferdam was finished in September 1996, and work finally began in earnest. The archaeologists could actually conduct a dry-land excavation, and work proceeded quickly. A team of archaeologists came from all over the United States to work on the site. They were immediately amazed by the artifacts they recovered. One of the first items found was a fragile piece of rope. Rope, like other organic materials, doesn't usually preserve well. It simply deteriorates. The team actually found thousands of feet of rope stowed below the deck. Why was the rope so well preserved? According to the Texas Historical Commission, “the mud covering the bottom of the ship created an environment in which bacteria could not flourish.”8 Because the shipwreck was not exposed to the destructive effects of bacteria, many other organic artifacts have also been found. In fact, about 40% of the hull has been preserved! Some of the wood lies loose. Unattached timbers were removed up to vats on top of the cofferdam. Even after three centuries in the mud, most of the oak planks of the hull were still solidly attached. They were removed and taken for tests and laboratory analysis. In fact, the archaeologists literally dismantled the ship, after carefully mapping every artifact.

One of the items recovered was a shoe last, a cobbler's tool for making shoes. A last had never been found on a shipwreck before. Also found were two crates of flintlock muskets. Another interesting find is a small box filled with hundreds of mirrors, combs and other goods for trading with the Indians. The items in this box would have been tremendously important to the colonists. Without goods to make treaties, the colonists would have been vulnerable to Indian attacks. This is also an important artifact because of its rarity. To find an entire box of trade goods is quite uncommon.

The ship has provided other important artifacts such as wine bottles, chess pieces, candlesticks, dishes, and even a broom. However, the most chilling find was a complete human skeleton. It was about 5'4" tall, and the shape of the pelvis indicated that the skeleton was that of a male, 30 to 40 years old. Forensic scientists worked on the skull to reconstruct details of this man’s life. They discovered that he had severe dental problems and suffered from arthritis. Dr. Gentry Steele further explained the forensic team's findings: "He had a broken nose and a fracture of the temple area. These were not the cause of death, however. Both wounds showed signs of healing."9

If those injuries were not the cause of death, how did he die? It was clear that he died when the Belle sank, but how did the Belle sink? Clues from the hull may eventually help archaeologists figure out this puzzle. Archaeologist Toni Carrell explains: "It's clear [from the Belle’s timbers] that it wasn't some sort of dramatic event that caused it to capsize… Rather, it was a slow accumulation of situations and circumstances that caused the hull to fill up with water. We can see that the ship is laying bow down, and over to the starboard. So that suggests that the starboard side of the hull may have hit at some point and loosened the seams. And the more water that the ship took in, the less maneuverable it was, and soon it settled on the bottom."10

Regardless of how the Belle sank, it is one of the most archaeologically important shipwrecks in the Western Hemisphere, yielding one of the largest and most diverse cargoes ever recovered from a North American shipwreck. Over one million items have been recovered from the Belle. The finds include "... 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."11

In addition to its archaeological significance, the Belle represents a crucial piece in the history of North America. This extraordinary wreck is almost as important historically as it is archaeologically. As much of a failure as the expedition was, it profoundly affected the course of North American history. The Texas Historical Society notes: "[La Salle’s expedition] alarmed the Spanish Crown, which was already afraid King Louis XIV would try to seize part of Spain's critical territory in the New World. The solution was to destroy the French…then colonize the northern portions of New Spain. Much of Texas' Hispanic heritage can be traced to Spain's reaction to the French incursion."12

Now, the ship itself has been taken apart. The Belle site is covered with the muddy waters of the bay, but every artifact, every piece of wood, is a treasure for archaeologists. Even though the ship no longer exists, her legacy lives on. It is a legacy of stubborn determination and a will to succeed, no matter what the odds.

This page was last updated on October 20, 2004