The Trials of Trinité: the Discovery and Archaeological Potential of Jean Ribault’s 1565 Flagship

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "From the Bottom Up: Socioeconomic Archaeology of the French Maritime Empire" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

With the 450th anniversary of French colonization at Fort Caroline (Jacksonville, Florida) in 2014, both state and LAMP archaeologists attempted searches to find the remains of Jean Ribault’s four shipwrecks. While these attempts were inconclusive, in 2016 a treasure hunting company found a sixteenth-century shipwreck off Cape Canaveral that was clearly related to the lost French fleet of 1565. The salvors made an Admiralty claim to secure salvage rights, but the Republic of France counterclaimed the wreckage was that of Ribault’s flagship la Trinité, and therefore French property. On 29 June 2018 a federal judge recognized France’s ownership, noting that the preponderance of evidence indicated the shipwreck was indeed la Trinité. In December 2018 it was announced that France and the State of Florida would jointly investigate and manage this shipwreck. This paper summarizes the historical background, surveys, court case, and the archaeological potential of this important shipwreck site.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• From the Bottom Up: Socioeconomic Archaeology of the French Maritime Empire   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 1034