Day 16

Today we, finally uncovered the port side iron ballast. This was slightly shorter than the starboard side at 2.44 meters and 0.73 meters at maximum width. This too finished at around the same point which was the break in the hull.  The challenge with these two chunks of iron is that it masks any other iron items in the immediate area. The gradiometer rings six feet away from them and the metal detector also is affected. However, from surveying along the port side exposed frames there clearly is a large iron mass. Whether this is more iron bars under all the ballast stone is yet to be proven.

The two pieces of hull planking from Le Dragon with copper sheeting which were found around 50 meters from the break in the hull. It is assumed they were deposited here as a result of the explosion.

The Team also went to finish uncovering the two planks with copper sheeting on them which were 23 meters to the north of the grid. They were left in situ because it was not known how strong the copper sheeting on the underside would be. One of the interesting factors about the copper sheeting was its strength. In the 200 survey the bow section was examined and the copper sheeting looked solid and almost like plate sheeting. However, on the small sections of loose sheeting, we have found this is different. Yes there is the thickness which is the concretion but a few pieces just snapped when moving them or the concretion came off to reveal that the copper sheeting was very thin. In fact, on some parts, it was like looking at a plant leaf seeing all the vanes and the thinness between. We had in effect ghost copper concretions, which was the first time I have ever seen this. On other wrecks like Le Casimir the copper sheeting was not even concreted and remained flexible but not eroded. The Dragon’s was completely different. Thick concretions and then almost sub-millimetre thickness with sections totally gone within the concretion. Further samples need to be recovered and a chemical breakdown of the copper analysed to see what impurities have created this unusual effect.

A piece of lead sheeting with a bronze nail, located close to the stern grid.

A piece of concreted copper sheeting which was in effect a “copper ghost concretion”.

Day 15

Well today a number of targets were achieved, we managed to get the amidships iron ballast long bar totally uncovered. This enabled us to inspect it and it was of stepped shape, probably made of numerous iron ballast bars which had concreted together in seven rows. The length was 3.46 meters and width 0.85m and it stopped just before the break. This leads into the next question is there a matching one on the port side and does it run forward into the bow section? Is this why the front section forward of the shot locker and main mast is still intact and has a hull shape under all the tons of rocks. Is it because there is iron ballast under the rocks which is supporting them and taking the weight off the timber floors and futtocks?

Other members of the Team started survey work beyond the grid to seaward to see if the anchors could be found. So far we have not located them but 23 meters north of the grid on the presumed stern section we found two pieces of hull planking about 2 meters in length with copper sheeting on. These were buried in the sand and the current hypotheses being that these were sections which landed here as a direct result of the explosion. Further survey work resulted in a piece of French faienceware being found in the sand with pieces of small copper sheeting about 53 meters from the amidships break. This could give us an indication of the blast radius.

The lead box trapped by one of the iron ballast blocks

One interesting find was a lead box without the lid. It was located next to some iron ballast bars, with the ballast bars holding it in place. Tomorrow further searching will be undertaken to see if there is a lid to the box and hopefully there might be some inscription on the box.

The lead box in the lab

Day 14

Well, my thanks go to Connor for doing the diving blog so far and now that he has departed for the other side of the world, I have to take up where he left off. No guarantee it shall be so eloquent. The new Team had arrived and they were quickly brought up to speed on the wreck site and what had been learnt so far. It was also great to have PhD student Florence Prudhomme with us. She is finalising her thesis on Le Dragon and the epic history of the ship and the Captain and was following on from my hypothesis on the wreck, which I published in my PhD thesis back in 2004. This was her first dive on the wreck site so she was really excited.

Team two getting ready for their first dive on Le Dragon

As usual, we had to adapt to the constant changing wreck site and the difficulties that we faced. One of them was the fine mud silt which was deposited over the centuries from a small stream running down to the beach. This was intertwined with sand from the sea meaning that as we hand fanned or tried to uncover anything clouds of silt would be created. This created poor photographic conditions much to our annoyance.

Today we started to uncover two parallel gradiometer hits which seemed to be equidistant from the keel. We also were thankful for the storm which had uncovered about 7ft of vertical coverage over the wreck site, which unfortunately had been deposited on the bow area. This meant that after three days of uncovering we still did not get to the bow or the figurehead and so I decided that we would relocate to the stern section where we had established an archaeological grid and were slowly documenting items which were protruding from the seabed and in an uncovered state. In fact, if it was not for the storm uncovering the site we would have had a hard time to get down to this level.

The port side was visible as well as the sandbags and grid from the 2000 survey.  The starboard side which had not been seen before was also now exposed making documentation easier. As to the area around the stern of the ship, this area had also been uncovered leaving a number of gradiometer hits to be discovered. These turned out to be iron ballast bars, sometimes known as “kentledge” and came from strips known as pigs, so they were also called “pig iron”.

One of the small iron ballast bars which scatter the wreck site

There were two sizes small and long and both had holes in them at either end, used for lifting and positioning in tight spaces at the bottom of the ship. So today we started defining these artefacts which were numerous as well as the two parallel large hits.

The rear end of the long sections of iron ballast on the amidships starboard side

These turned out to be different sizes of ballast bars joined together and it appears there may well be a mixture of small and long bars concreted together and some even longer. We did not have time to uncover all of the long parallel bars just the starboard side. We still do not know how far they run to but it appears that they continue to the amidships break. However, it was interesting that the ship had a mixture of iron ballast bars and stone ballast.

Bryan Thomas and Florence Prudhomme after four hours underwater on Le Dragon

Tomorrow we aim to finish uncovering these long parallel iron bars.

The Countdown Has Started!

Less than a week to go before this exciting Le Dragon project starts. Tonight we had the last of the Team conference calls, going through key points before we all arrive for the start of this epic maritime archaeological project. 

The graphics of the Captain and Le Dragon from Connor Grzesiak and Jared Adamo who were using gofundme.com for raising funds for equipment. 

This year the Team come from England, France, Canada, USA, Dominican Republic and Australia.

The Le Dragon wreck site on the north coast of the Dominican Republic, which will become a major maritime archaeological site during July 2018.

The plan is to survey the starboard side of the wreck and see if we can prove the wrecking process from archival information researched into the important battle where Le Dragon was chased by 14 ships from the English Admiral Hood's Caribbean Squadron. In the end Le Dragon was chased for two days by a third rate ship of the line a 74gun as well as a smaller 54 gun ship from the English squadron, as well as the remaining squadron blocking all escape routes.  

For further information go to the Le Dragon Project page