La Belle: The Archaeology of a Seventeenth-Century Ship of New World Colonization ed. by James E. Bruseth et al. (review)

French exploration of North America lasted for nearly two centuries, extending from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River to the Rocky Mountains and from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. Among the more colorful early explorers was the venerable Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, who descended to the mouth of the Mississippi River in 1682, led a failed attempt to establish a coastal settlement, and was killed in the process, a final tragedy in a long list of mishaps. While La Salle's body has never been found, Texas Historical Commission archaeologists have successfully located, excavated, analyzed, and interpreted one of the four ships in his fleet, La Belle—arguably the most important assemblage of French colonial material culture in the New World.

Archaeological discoveries are noteworthy because of the level of public support they receive, their significance, the enormity of the task, their innovative procedures, and the knowledge gained. The La Belle project excels in these areas. After the ship's discovery in 1995 in about ten feet of water in Matagorda Bay, Texas—which was verified by the identification of a bronze cannon from the French royal navy—archaeologists developed a novel approach to recovering the wreck, by surrounding it with a cofferdam to allow for dry excavation. They assembled financial support from scores of donors to ensure the proper reclamation, conservation, analysis, and interpretation of the remains of the hull and some 1.8 million artifacts. This technical, scientific report documents the twenty-year process that has produced a "key reference for students of Texas and world history, French Colonial archaeology, and seventeenth-century maritime resources" (p. ix).

While documents concerning La Salle's exploits abound, less has been known about the La Belle and its cargo. The vessel and its contents provide clear, provocative evidence of late-seventeenth-century shipbuilding techniques, the goods La Belle held just before the surviving crew members literally jumped ship, and the cultural and natural processes that formed this archaeological record.

The editors are to be commended for assembling this forty-chapter volume, written by an interdisciplinary team of historians, archaeologists, physical anthropologists, and other scientists using state-of-the-art analytical techniques and comparative data to gain a fuller understanding of French imperial motives and the struggles the crew faced as they attempted to survive when disaster struck. The authors present the complete technical details of the archaeological excavation, analysis, and interpretation from the tiniest glass seed bead to the remains of the ship itself. While not all the authors concur on specific interpretations—for instance, about whether the ship was constructed for La Salle—they nonetheless produce a rather complete picture by weaving together French documentary sources concerning shipbuilding, rigging, and the voyage, experimental and replicative work, and physical evidence.

This volume is logically organized into seven parts. Part 1 (chapters 1–4) discusses historical context, archival research, recovery procedures, and conservation. The ship's design, organization, and hardware are examined in Part 2 (chapters 5–12). Among the book's more interesting technical studies is the dendrochronology, which indicates that some timbers were cut as early as the fifteenth century, raising questions about whether the wood was recycled from older ships. Chapter 11, on the ship's stowing and packing containers, systematically records a large number of various casks and is a milestone for the study of maritime cooperage. The casks' contents lend insight into the diverse suppliers, including foreign and local artisanal sources. Chapter 12 examines the navigational limitations of the period through the instruments that sailors typically used.

Part 3, "Arms" (chapters 13–21), shows weapons were important, which is understandable given the military's aim to attack Spanish silver mines farther west. Expected munitions include artillery, flintlocks...