COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS—The restoration of La Belle, a seventeenth-century French ship discovered in 1995, has been completed at Texas A&M University’s Conservation Research Laboratory. La Belle was one of four ships sent to explore and colonize the Gulf Coast area under the command of Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. La Salle and 300 settlers missed the mouth of the Mississippi River, however, and La Belle ended up grounded during a storm in 1686 in Matagorda Bay, around 100 miles southwest of Houston, heavily laden with supplies. The Guardian reports that archaeologists recovered a wide range of artifacts, including cannons, long guns, swords, Jesuit rings, combs, clothing, glass bottles and beads, brass tins, casks, and pewter plates, along with the ship’s hull, which had been heavily damaged by burrowing worms. “The La Belle herself is just the largest artifact that came out of the excavation,” said archaeologist Peter Fix. He explained that the fragile timbers were removed from the Gulf, transported in tanks of water to the lab, and freeze dried so that the conservators could carefully remove the water. Then the timbers were cleaned with brushes and chisels. The remains of La Belle are now on display at the Texas State History Museum in Austin. For more on the archaeology of shipwrecks, go to "Is it Esmeralda?"
