Cannons Recovered From French Ship

Two 800-pound bronze cannons were recovered by jubilant archeologists excavating a ship that belonged to the French explorer La Salle. The 50-foot ship, The Belle, ran aground and sank 311 years ago in a storm in the Gulf of Mexico’s Matagorda Bay, about 125 miles southwest of what today is Houston. The weapons bear the crests of King Louis XIV and Le Comte de Vermandois, admiral of France from 1669 until his death in 1683. To get at the wreck, archeologists built a cofferdam. The steel and gravel structure let workers pump out the 12-foot-deep water and expose the sea floor.