Debris discovered off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida earlier back in May likely belonged to Spanish ships bound for Havana, Cuba following a successful raid on a French fort, members of the expedition team responsible for the discovery told Live Science on Wednesday.
Earlier this month, Global Marine Exploration, Inc. (GME) announced that they had discovered three ornate bronze cannons, two of which were 10 feet long and a third which was 7.5 feet long, along with what appeared to be a marble monument of the French king’s coat of arms, scattered ballast and munitions in shallow water just east of the launch pads at Cape Canaveral.
The end of a bronze cannon found at the site. Credit: Jacksonville.com
Initially, GME believed that the that the wreckage was part of the remains of lost French vessels commanded by Jean Ribault in 1565, but additional analysis of physical evidence and research of historical records later ruled out that possibility, as the cannons and coat of arms were installed at Fort Caroline, an early French Huguenot colony located near modern-day Jacksonville.
GME chief executive Robert Pritchett told Live Science that the cannons and monuments were most likely seized by the Spanish during a raid on Fort Caroline, and that they were being taken to Havana, Cuba when the vessels encountered a storm that ultimately caused them to sink.
Recovery, research efforts currently held up by a permit issue
The remains of the ships were discovered in a four-mile long, half-mile wide “scatter field” of debris on the seafloor, the website explained, and were found in the vicinity of a later shipwreck believed to date back to the 1800s. In addition to the monument and the bronze cannons, GME found 19 iron cannons, 12 anchors, and a stone grinding wheel.
Markings on one of the cannons, which were discovered using underwater magnetometers that allowed divers to locate metal items buried beneath the seabed, indicated that it had been cast in the 16th century during the reign of French King Henry II, Pritchett told Live Science. The coat-of-arms monument, on the other hand, was made out of hand-carved marble, he noted.
The cannons and monument have yet to be recovered, as GME is waiting for Florida officials to approve a permit. In the meantime, Pritchett said that he is concerned that the artifacts could be targeted by looters. “These cannons are worth over a million dollars apiece,” and the monument may be even more valuable, he cautioned. “So if looters could find out the location, then a piece of history is gone forever, because it’s going to be sold on the black market.”
In a statement, GME chief archaeologist Jim Sinclair said that “the historical and archaeological significance of these artifacts cannot be overstated,” but as Pritchett told Live Science, his team will have to wait until they have a chance to recover and study them on land until they can learn more about them. “Right now, we’re waiting on the state of Florida,” he said.
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Image credit: Global Marine Explorations Inc.
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