Ship hidden beneath Caribbean harbor may be ‘prize’ from American Revolution, experts say
The discovery of a “well-preserved” 18th century ship under 8 feet of Caribbean mud has become more fantastic as historians now suspect the wreck has ties to the American Revolution.
“Compelling” data indicates the shipwreck in Antigua’s Naval Dockyard is the 260-year-old Beaumont, a French vessel that later became part of the war under a different name: Lyon.
A team from North Carolina is playing a key role in the international effort to identify the wreck, including investigator Lynn Harris of East Carolina University in Greenville. Harris specializes in African and Caribbean maritime history and archaeology.
If it is the Lyon, the wreck could answer questions about how merchant ships were modified for the war, Harris said.
“It is a significant case study of French allegiance and support of the rebel patriot cause in the American Revolution ... despite the dangers,” Harris told McClatchy News.
“Identifying the wreck will provide a tangible and exciting centerpiece to highlight this intrigue for both scholars and the public. ... Its legacy contributes vignettes to French, British, American, and Caribbean history,” she said.
Experts began to suspect a ship was buried in the dockyard — about 1,300 miles southeast of Miami — when a survey team found large timbers in 2013, according to a news release from East Carolina University. However, it wasn’t until 2021 that experts from the University of the French West Indies in Martinique confirmed a vessel sat beneath the harbor floor.
The effort to identify the wreck has since grown to include Antiguan, French and American historians and archaeologists.
Harris and a team of East Carolina students visited the harbor over the summer, resulting in excavations around the bow, stern and midships. Their work was an attempt to see the “full extent of the wreck and its construction features,” Harris said.
What they found was 147 feet long — a good fit for a warship — and it held artifacts that “fit the date range of mid-1700s,” she said.
The 900-ton Beaumont was built in 1762 and “has an illustrious global biography,” historians say. It was built for the French East Indies Company and originally used for trade in the Indian Ocean, Harris said.
“When the company dissolved in 1769, the ship was deployed into French naval service as a fourth-rate-ship-of the line,” the East Carolina University news release said. “In 1772, it left naval service and was purchased by a private citizen, Dessaudrais Sebire and Co., who renamed it Lyon, commanded by Capt. Jean Michel, who carried out trade that supported the rebel patriots during the American War of Independence.”
Lyon was captured by a British warship off Virginia and taken “to Antigua as a prize” in 1778.
However, there’s a gap in the ship’s history after it came to Antigua, including how it met its demise. A harbor map from 1780 shows the outline of the ship in the spot where the wreck was found, with the label “Lyon,” experts say.
It’s possible dockyard workers “used, modified, scuttled, or recycled parts of it over the years,” Harris said. “Excavating around the timbers to carefully expose the construction details of a huge well preserved 18th century ship in a shallow water ... is a unique experience for me.
“I have worked on large British and Dutch East India Company shipwrecks in Africa, but none were as intact in locations of more dynamic surf environments,” Harris said. “New evidence like protective sheathing, burning, and fragile artifacts were uncovered between the timbers. ... Each artifact has a potential story about manufacturing, distribution, trade, warfare, and daily life on the ship.”
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