Archaeologists locate 'La Fortuna,' a Spanish ship that exploded in 1748 along North Carolina's coast
Archaeologists have discovered four 18th-century shipwrecks off the coast of North Carolina, including what may be the wreck of La Fortuna, a Spanish privateer from Cuba that exploded during an attack in 1748.
The wrecks were found near Brunswick Town, a major Colonial port on the southern coast of North Carolina. The town was the first successful European settlement of the Cape Fear region (named due to 16th-century sailors' fears of getting shipwrecked), and the port was used to export pine products like tar and turpentine used by the Royal Navy. But archaeologists surveying the area had not expected to find such a large number of wrecks and colonial artifacts.
"Visibility [underwater] is consistently pretty low in the Cape Fear River," Cory van Hees, a graduate student at East Carolina University (ECU), said in a statement. Van Hees got disoriented while diving and came across beams of wood sticking out of the mud. "I didn't understand what I was looking at in that moment," van Hees said, "but I knew I should relay the wooden structure to faculty."
The project co-leaders, ECU maritime archaeologists Jason Raupp and Jeremy Borrelli, think one of the wrecks, which comprises 47 timbers, is La Fortuna. Historical records note that two Spanish ships anchored off Brunswick Town on Sept. 4, 1748. The Spanish began to raid the then-English town, but they were surprised by a counterattack from the colonists a couple of days later. During the attack, La Fortuna exploded and sank.
The project team found two major clues that the wreck is indeed La Fortuna: the timbers and the artifacts nearby, including Spanish pottery.
Some of the wood used in the ship's construction was from a cypress species native to Central America. This suggests that shipbuilders used raw materials from a Spanish Caribbean colony to construct the ship, according to the statement, and La Fortuna is the only Spanish ship known to have sunk in this area.
Related: Coins worth over $1 million recovered from 1715 Spanish treasure shipwrecks in Florida
Image 1 of 4
A barrel stave with the Roman numerals IIIIV inscribed on it, found near one of the Colonial wharves at Brunswick Town.
Image 2 of 4
A cooper's cuttingtool, known as an adze, was found on the beach at Brunswick Town.
Image 3 of 4
A Spanish majolica ceramic sherd was found among the assemblage of shipwreck timbers recovered from the beach at Brunswick Town.
Image 4 of 4
The Colonial timber-crib wharf site is exposed from the eroding coastal marsh at the Brunswick Town historic site.
While recording the shipwrecks this summer, the team "found hundreds of artifacts," Borrelli told Live Science in an email, including "ceramic sherds, glass container bottles, clay tobacco pipes, a cooper's adze [cutting tool], barrel heads and staves, sailcloth, leather shoes, possible clothing fragments, and butchered animal bone." In addition, two fragments of 18th-century Spanish-American ceramics are "another clue supporting the preliminary identification of La Fortuna," Borrelli said.
RELATED STORIES
—'Pirate' shipwrecks that sank in 1710 off Costa Rica are actually remains of Danish slave ships
—300-year-old pirate-plundered shipwreck that once held 'eyewatering treasure' discovered off Madagascar
—Mysterious Antikythera Mechanism may have jammed constantly, like a modern printer. Was it just a janky toy?
The other three wrecks are still something of a mystery. All of them have construction details and artifacts that suggest they were used in the 1700s, Borrelli said, which means the wrecks are likely associated with the 50-year lifespan of the Colonial port at Brunswick Town. But coastal erosion has dramatically impacted the archaeological site, scattering the shipwrecks' remains over a wide area, he said.
Raupp and Borrelli plan to continue their investigation into the wrecks.
"As we dig deeper and uncover more evidence, it may lead us in another direction," Borrelli said. "It is highly improbable that any of the other shipwrecks found at Brunswick Town are Spanish vessels, but we can't rule anything out at the moment."
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Medieval knight 'Lancelot' and his stunning stone tomb found under ice cream shop in Poland
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Archaeologists were surprised to discover the exceptional tomb of a medieval knight underneath an ice cream shop in the seaside Polish city of Gdańsk. The 13th-century burial includes a rare carving that probably depicts the knight himself. "We discovered a large limestone tomb slab carved with the image of a knight in full chainmail armor," Sylwia Kurzyńska, an archaeologist with ArcheoScan who co-directed the excavation, told Live Science in an email. The carved slab is rare in medieval Poland because "only a few featured images of the deceased," she said. Kurzyńska and her team found the monument in the historic center of Gdańsk in July, when they were excavating the grounds of a stronghold used from the 11th to the 14th centuries. Within the stronghold were the remains of a castle, a church and a cemetery. The carved tombstone has been preliminarily dated to the late 13th or early 14th century, Kurzyńska said. Roughly 59 inches (150 centimeters) long and made out of limestone imported from Gotland, Sweden, the slab shows a man standing upright in full armor and holding a sword and a shield. "Given that it was made out of soft limestone and lay buried for centuries," Kurzyńska said, "the preservation of the slab is remarkable — the carving, the armor and the shield are still well-defined." Shortly after their discovery of the slab, the ArcheoScan team removed the stone and dug deeper. They found a well-preserved male skeleton but no grave goods. Related: 600-year-old amethyst 'worthy of a duke' found in medieval castle moat in Poland "All evidence suggests that the person commemorated was of high social standing, most likely a knight or someone holding a military function," Kurzyńska said. Although the date and location of this burial coincide with the rise of the Teutonic Knights, researchers found no inscriptions or symbols to definitively link him to that order. The discovery is an important one in Gdańsk, Kurzyńska said, as it represents "a direct link to the city's formative years, offering a rare glimpse into the lives and burials of its medieval elite." RELATED STORIES —Medieval gold ring found in castle in Slovakia has rare purple sapphire imported from Sri Lanka —Medieval crowns of Eastern European royalty hidden in cathedral wall since World War II finally recovered —Remains of 14th-century gauntlet discovered in Oslo's medieval harbor Additional work on both the tomb slab and the skeleton is already underway. Researchers are documenting the slab using high-resolution 3D scanning, with the aim of reconstructing and preserving the unique carving. In addition, a chemical and genetic analysis of the bones will help them better understand who this man was and what his life was like. "We also plan to create a facial reconstruction based on the skull," Kurzyńska said, to figure out what the knight, which the public has dubbed the "Gdańsk Lancelot," may have looked like in life.
Gizmodo
a day ago
- Gizmodo
Possible Spanish Shipwreck From the 1700s Emerges From North Carolina Marsh
Archaeologists in Brunswick County, North Carolina, have discovered four shipwrecks in just two months. One could be La Fortuna, a Spanish ship destroyed in September 1748, during King George's War. The researchers found the wrecks and a number of colonial waterfront features in May and June at the Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site (BTFA), the former location of a pre-Revolutionary port and later a Civil War Confederate fort. The exposed remains, previously hidden beneath a marsh, are now vulnerable to erosion. 'We are extremely excited about these important sites, as each one will help us to better understand the role of BTFA as one of the state's earliest colonial port towns,' Jason Raupp, an archaeologist at East Carolina University who led the discovery team involved, said in a university statement. Raupp and his colleagues found the shipwrecks along the BTFA shoreline. Samples from one of the wrecks revealed that the ship included timber from either Monterey cypresses or Mexican cypresses, meaning wood from either Southern California or Central America. According to the researchers, this suggests that shipbuilders in the 18th century used materials from Spanish colonies in the Caribbean. Consequently, the archaeologists believe the shipwreck could be that of La Fortuna, because it is the sole historically reported Spanish shipwreck in the region. What's more, they found the wreck close to where a diver had previously found an 18th-century cannon—also potentially from La Fortuna—in 1985. The ship exploded during the Brunswick Town raid in September 1748, when townspeople fought back against Spanish raiders. 'My dive buddy, Evan Olinger, and I were taking width measurements of Wharf Four to help delineate the site,' explained Cory van Hees, a maritime studies graduate student at East Carolina University who was involved in the discoveries. 'In the search for the Northern extent of the wharf, I came across several wooden frames barely sticking out of the clay mud with evidence of planking just barely visible on the surface,' he said. 'I didn't understand what I was looking at in that moment, but I knew I should relay the wooden structure to faculty. Later that day, Dr. Jason Raupp was able to confirm this was a wreck, which may be La Fortuna. It was kind of overwhelming and a little emotional feeling once it set in,' he added. Some of the wreck's timbers still feature tool markings. As for the three other wrecks, one was right next to a colonial wharf site, another might have been a colonial flatboat, and the third is still unidentified. The archaeologists also found remains of colonial port infrastructure and artifacts. Unfortunately, however, it's all at risk of erosion due to forces such as channel dredging, waves, and storms. As such, the researchers documented the archaeological sites and brought more than 40 timbers from the potential La Fortuna wreck to a conservation lab at East Carolina University. It remains to be seen what further research will reveal about the four wrecks and whether one of them truly represents La Fortuna's watery grave.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Grandfather Mountain welcomes Leroy the bald eagle
LINVILLE, N.C. – Grandfather Mountain, the not-for-profit nature park run by Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation, is welcoming a new member to its eagle habitat: Leroy, a bald eagle who is beaming with character. Leroy arrived at Grandfather Mountain in July of 2025. He came from Oklahoma, where a group of fishermen found him stranded on the bank of a large lake. The fishermen reported Leroy to the staff at Wild Heart Ranch, a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center, who discovered that he had an injury to his left wrist. This injury resulted in permanent changes to Leroy's left carpus, which does not allow the normal range of motion required for sustained flight. Due to this, Leroy cannot be released back into the wild and was in need of a new home. Grandfather's habitat staff learned about Leroy during their search for a new bald eagle. Under the care of his Oklahoma rehabilitators, he recently made the cross-country trip by vehicle to the mountain. 'When Leroy first arrived, he was naturally a bit nervous,' said Deborah Anderson, animal habitats assistant curator for the Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation. 'For the first week or so we allowed small, controlled groups through the eagle habitat to keep Leroy's nerves at bay. We continued to do our 12:30 p.m. Eagle Talk and he tolerated that very well.' Leroy is believed to be a young eagle due to some remaining brown feathers in his head. He is approximately 4 to 5 years old. 'Bald' refers not to the white head, but to the piebald (black and white) adult plumage. The adult bald eagle is blackish brown and assumes a snow-white head and tail when it reaches maturity. The adult male bald eagle usually measures 2.5 to 3 feet long with a wingspan of 6 to 8 feet. Leroy shares his habitat at Grandfather Mountain with another bald eagle, Griffin. Griffin came to the mountain from the wilds of Nebraska, where he suffered severe head trauma rendering him unable to find and catch food. 'Leroy and Griffin seem to not mind each other much, which is exactly what we had hoped for,' said Christie Tipton, animal habitats curator for the Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation. Prior to Leroy, Griffin shared his habitat with a bald eagle named Ajax, who passed on Feb. 5 this year. Ajax spent nearly a decade of his life at Grandfather Mountain and loved to play in the pond and enjoy the trout that were provided as an enrichment. He could even be found, at times, sharing a perch with Griffin. Though a new move can always be a bit unnerving, Leroy has been utilizing his cave and the perches in the eagle habitat so that he can feel safe while he observes guests as they pass through. When louder crowds roam through the habitats, Leroy is still a bit uneasy but, overall, he is acclimating well to life on the mountain. 'We are proud to see that he is adjusting so quickly,' said Tipton. 'This process has been very smooth, and it is exciting to see that Leroy is eating well and has turned out to be a rather chatty bird!' To learn more about bald eagles, or to see Leroy, guests should attend a Keeper Talk daily from now through November 9. Keeper Talks about the mountain's resident eagles take place at 12:30 p.m. at the eagle habitat. This is a great opportunity to learn more about animals and see them receive an enrichment from one of the mountain's keepers. To learn more about Keeper Talks, visit Wildlife Habitats at Grandfather Mountain offer the chance to see black bears, river otters, cougars, elk and eagles. All of the animals on the mountain are, or once were, native to the area and have been placed in Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation's care for various reasons that prevent them from surviving on their own in nature. The nature park's environmental habitats are large enclosures that allow visitors to see animals in natural settings. Plan your trip to the mountain today at Leroy will soon be added to the organization's Adopt-an-Animal program, with each adoption helping to enrich the lives of the habitat animals living at the mountain. Learn more at The nonprofit Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation strives to inspire conservation of the natural world through education, exploration and example. For more information, visit This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Grandfather Mountain NC welcomes Leroy the bald eagle Solve the daily Crossword
