The 1817 Privateer Ghost Fleet of Matagorda, Texas, and the Search for Louis-Michel Aury’s Lost Port

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In May 1817, French privateer Louis-Michel Aury was at a crossroads. After disembarking filibusters on the northern coast of New Spain and reconnoitering a new camp location in Matagorda Bay, he returned to Galveston Island only to learn it had been usurped by the famed pirate Jean Lafitte. Aury retreated to Matagorda Bay with more than a dozen vessels and established a new headquarters at the Spanish port of Matagorda, but his time there was brief. Aury abandoned his port under abrupt and mysterious circumstances, leaving destruction in his wake. Most of his fleet lay in burned ruins and, after a brief return to Galveston, he relocated to Amelia Island at the invitation of adventure Gregor MacGregor. The location of Aury’s lost fleet has eluded archeologists, in part due to inexact accounts of Matagorda’s location and its sometimes confusion with a nearby Texas port of the same name. Archival records suggest 11 vessels of Aury’s Mexican privateer fleet are in the vicinity of Pass Cavallo, Texas. This paper discusses Aury’s tenure in Texas, the archival sleuthing to uncover the potential location of Aury’s lost fleet, and the two recorded shipwreck sites potentially linked to this history.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37429.0