When you purchase through links on our internet site , we may earn an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it works .
It ’s relatively common to bump detritus from skyrocket launch in the waters off Cape Canaveral in Florida , but diver exploring the ocean floor late reveal artifacts from an age of exploration long before America ’s space program : 22 cannon and a marble monument in what they think are three 16th - century Spanish shipwreck .
The find let in three ornatebronze cannon — two that are 10 infantry ( 3 meters ) long and one that is 7 feet ( 2 m ) long — and the marble monument , engraved with the pelage of sleeve of the mogul of France , which has been identified from the manifest of a 1562 expedition to Florida by the French navigator and colonialist Jean Ribault .
The French fleur-de-lis symbol engraved on a 16th-century bronze cannon discovered in a shipwreck off the coast of Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Robert Pritchett , principal executive of the Florida - based company Global Marine Exploration , which search the wrecks in May and June , told Live Science that it was initially think that the newfound wrecks might admit Ribault ’s two " lose ship , " which pass during a storm in 1565 , a few eld after the voyage from France . [ See photograph of the Colonial - Age Shipwrecks happen Off Cape Canaveral ]
But records picture that the bronze cannons and monument from Ribault ’s jaunt were installed at Fort Caroline , an other French Huguenot dependency on the St. Johns River , in what is now Jacksonville , Florida . In 1565 , the cannons and memorial were seized in a Spanish foray , " so [ the memorial ] would not be on aFrench shipif it was removed by the Spanish , " Pritchett say .
Instead , Pritchett thinks these items were being carried away from Florida as dirty money on Spanish ships , bound for Havana , Cuba , when they were strike by a tempest that banished them to the seafloor .
This engraving from a painting by a member of Ribault’s expedition, Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, shows the monument in place beside the St. Johns River in Florida, where it was erected in 1562 to mark the French claim to the territory.
The remains of the threecolonial - age shipswere found across a wide-eyed " scatter field " of debris on the seafloor about 4 nautical mile ( 6 kilometers ) long and about a half mile ( 0.8 km ) wide , along with the clay of a later wreck that is thought to be from the 1800s , Pritchett said .
Divers discovered the wreck during a marine resume of the sphere in late September 2015 using underwater magnetometer equipment that provide them to locate alloy particular lie beneath the seabed .
In addition to the three bronze cannons and the marble monument , the divers observe 19 atomic number 26 cannon , 12 keystone , a stone dig wheel , and scattered ballast resistor and ammo from the ships , Pritchett aver . The markings on one of the bronze cannon bespeak that it was cast in the 1540s , during the sovereignty of King Henry II of France , he added .
Rocket graveyard
Pritchett explained that his company had licence from the state of Florida to explore seven area off the seashore of Cape Canaveral , where the wreck were find — an area litter with debris fromrocket examination launchesat the U.S. Air Force base at Cape Canaveral , southeast ofNASA ’s Kennedy Space Center .
" We ’ve find hundreds and century and one C of U.S. Air Force rockets that they were testing from 1948 forwards , and also shrimp boats , aeroplane engine , airplane , " Pritchett said .
" We have detect some of the actualrocket locomotive engine , and lots of rocket tube-shaped structure — some of these thing are 30 , 40 ft long , " he said . " Some are hold fast midway out on the open , or stick straight up out of the Baroness Dudevant — there are literally thousands of them out there . We GPS and snap everything we find , and we turn that hooey over to the U.S. Air Force , because one daytime , it will be worthful to someone for a historical ground . "
The area containing the colonial - geezerhood shipwreck is in shallow water , and the condition on the seabed change from day to Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , he said . [ Shipwrecks Gallery : secret of the Deep ]
" The sea there is shallow , 15 to 25 invertebrate foot [ 4.5 to 8 m ] , and the sand break a lot out there , " he said . " So the cannons could be covered by 3 feet [ 0.9 m ] of sand , or they could be cover by 8 foot [ 2.4 m ] of sand — it ’s dissimilar every time the winding blows . "
Looter danger
For now , the cannons and the marble repository continue with the otherdebris of the wrecks on the seafloor , until Florida authorities approve a permit for Pritchett ’s company to recuperate the artifacts , Pritchett said .
" We ’ve been get the state [ of Florida ] have sex that these artifacts areat the peril of raider , and of the weather , " he said . " These cannons are deserving over a million dollar apiece — so if looters could find out the emplacement , then a piece of story is gone forever , because it ’s blend to be sell on the black market . "
Pritchett suppose the marble memorial may be worth many times that amount , as " the only one of its kind — and believably the most significant piece of maritime story that ’s ever been found on the entire East Coast of the United States , " he add .
The monument , which is in the cast of a coating of arms set atop a column , is about 3 feet eminent and 2 foundation ( 0.6 m ) wide , " just the agency it is report in the original records , " Pritchett allege , and dress with fleur - de - lis symbol — a stylized blossom used in heraldry by French royalty — and the crown of the king of France .
Pritchett say more data about the origin of the wrecks will have to wait until archaeologists on the open can hit the books them .
" It ’s a mystery at this full stop , and until we bring all these items up and examine them , we ’re not going to have intercourse a lot more about them — only what we get laid from the little bit of research in the water that we ’ve been able to do , " Pritchett tell . " But right now , we ’re waiting on the country of Florida . "
Original clause onLive Science .
