Treasure hunters have apparently found the 500-year-old remains of a naval expedition led by a colonizer who could have changed Florida’s history, making it French-speaking at least for a while.
The big question is if the shipwreck is that of La Trinite, the 32-gun flagship of a fleet led by Jean Ribault, a French navigator who tried to establish a Protestant colony in the southeast of what became the US under orders from King Charles IX.
They probably are, say authorities in Florida, the French government and independent archeologists.
If they are, this is an unparalleled find, said John de Bry, director of the Center for Historical Archeology, a not-for-profit organization.
“If it turns out to be La Trinite, it is the most important, historically and archeologically, the most important shipwreck ever found in North America,” he said.
The artefacts found at the site off Cape Canaveral include three bronze cannons with markings from the reign of King Henri II, who ruled right before Charles IX; and a stone monument with the French coat of arms that was to be used to claim the new territory.
In 1565, Ribault set sail from Fort Caroline, today Jacksonville, to attack his arch-enemy, Spaniard Pedro Menendez de Aviles, who had been sent to Florida by King Philip of Spain to thwart French plans to set up a colony.
However, Ribault got caught in a hurricane, which destroyed La Trinite and three other galleons and ended French dreams of claiming Florida. Ribault and hundreds of other French Huguenots were killed by Menendez de Aviles.
Archeologists and historians have been looking for the shipwreck for years. Two years ago, an expedition from the state-run St Augustine Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program gave it a shot, but found nothing.
The find was finally made in May by a treasure hunting firm called Global Marine Exploration (GME).
GME owner Robert Pritchett is not happy. He says he has invested US$3 million in this gig and now runs the risk of getting nothing for his trouble.
Under laws governing shipwrecks, the US recognizes other countries’ sovereignty over warships of theirs that sink in US waters. So Florida must hand over the remains in this case to France.
GME in October filed a suit claiming ownership of all the remains found at the shipwreck site, but early this month France and the state of Florida filed a countersuit.
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