GUSTAVIA, SAINT BARTHÉLEMY—According to a Miami Herald report, a collection of small cannonballs known as grapeshot has been unearthed at Fort Gustav, a military outpost on the Caribbean Island of Saint Barthélemy, by researchers from the French National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research. Construction of the fort was begun by the French in the mid-eighteenth century to protect ships headed to Europe from pirates, but the island was soon traded to Sweden for trading rights. Saint Barthélemy was eventually returned to the French in 1878. Such rounds of grapeshot would have been fired from cannon, perhaps at enemy ships. A horseshoe, nails, coins, elements of military uniforms, a porcelain bust, and a handle were also recovered from the fort. To read about a fort on Panama's Caribbean coast, go to "Pirates of the Original Panama Canal."
