foodies
La Salle and La Belle WRITTEN BY ELLIS V. LUCIA
THIS STORY AND scenario came to mind as I looked
photographing as a team of archaeologists and students
back on how the tricentennial of the City of New Orleans
swarmed the deck of the remains of La Belle, La Salle’s
might have happened 32 years earlier.
54-ft flagship, which lay half covered in 300 plus years of
In the fall of 1996, I found myself standing on the floor
gulf silt, a short distance off the southeast Texas coast.
of the Gulf of Mexico at Matagorda Bay. My heart raced.
The cofferdam consisted of two concentric circles of steel
I took in slow deep breaths of saltwater air. It smelled of
sheet pilings hammered into the soft bay mud surrounding
brine, clay and clamshells. I let the history I had read of
the wrecked ship. After sand was packed in between the
Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle and his expedition
walls of steel, the contained water was pumped out and
wash over me as I stood on the damp sand.
La Belle was exposed to air for the first time in three
In the late 17th Century, La Salle, in a group of four
centuries. A large metal roof was constructed above the
ships with 300 people, set off from France on an ill-
dam to protect the site while historians used whiskbrooms,
fated exploration of the Gulf of Mexico. Originally his
artist’s paintbrushes, picks and tweezers to meticulously
intention was to sail to Canada then haul La Belle, a
separate muck from artifact.
54-ft kit ship, overland to the Mississippi River. There
After documenting the historians’ work I needed an
he would assemble it, and sail south to the mouth of the
overview of the ship and setting for context and scale. To
river and begin a new French settlement solidifying the
that end a small hole, large enough to accommodate a lens,
heartland of North America, from Canada through the
was cut in the center of the roof directly above the ship. I
Illinois Country to the Gulf, as New France.
climbed into a basket for personnel that was attached to the
Instead, Louis XIV decided to send La Salle and his
boom of a crane and was then maneuvered and suspended
convoy directly to the unfamiliar waters of the Gulf of
above the opening to get overall shots of the scene unfolding
Mexico.
below. Photos of history for history. It was a good day.
Using a map that conflated the Mississippi
and Rio Grande rivers La Salle missed the mouth of the
Another great find in the Gulf of Mexico is Yellowfin
Mississippi by 400 miles and settled an area on the north
tuna. I’ll leave you with a recipe for a grilled tuna salad and
end of Matagorda Bay calling it Fort St. Louis.
this thought--Don’t be La Salle, be Bienville, the guy who
So there I stood inside a large cofferdam watching and 34 34 Sophisticated Sophisticated Woman Woman || April April 2019 2019
founded New Orleans.