Team including Texas State professor recovers cannons thought to be Captain Morgan's

Archaeologists searched in Panamanian waters for sunken pirate ship.

By Patrick George
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

SAN MARCOS — In 1671, the English pirate-for-hire Captain Henry Morgan spearheaded a raid on Panama, then the richest city in Spain's colonial empire, leading thousands of men and a naval fleet armed to the teeth.

But while Morgan was a brilliant military strategist, he wasn't much of a navigator, according to Texas State University underwater archaeology professor Frederick Hanselmann. Not long after one of Morgan's advance parties captured a Spanish fortress at the mouth of the Chagres River, Morgan crashed his flagship, the Satisfaction, into a reef, causing it and three or four other ships to sink. The ships disappeared into the water and were forgotten until last year when Hanselmann and fellow archaeologists unearthed cannons that might have belonged to Morgan's fleet.

Hanselmann and fellow archaeologist James Delgado look over cannons that the Texas State professor says might have belonged to the Satisfaction, a French ship taken by Captain Henry Morgan. The ship crashed into a reef and sank in Panama's Chagres River.Foto: Facundo Bacardi

It was the first archaeological study of the area and the first direct evidence of the presence of Morgan or his men.

After the wreck, Morgan continued up the river on foot to lead a devastating and politically controversial raid on what's now Panama City. The guns recovered in September are undergoing restoration in Panama, where they will eventually be displayed in a museum. The team made the announcement of the discovery in late February.

Hanselmann, who joined Texas State in December, said the discovery is significant because it sheds light on an exciting time in human history, one that has captured people's imaginations in books and movies — such as Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" — but isn't well-documented archaeologically.

"Archaeology is all about our shared past," said Hanselmann, the chief underwater archaeologist and dive training officer with the River Systems Institute and the Center for Archaeological Studies . "This is a global story."

Scourge of the seas
Morgan was born in 1635 and was most active as a seafaring raider in the 1660s and early 1670s, Hanselmann said. He was employed as a privateer — a private citizen given wartime authorization by a nation to attack enemy ports and fleets. Hanselmann said such arrangements were less expensive for England than building a military armada like Spain's.

Morgan's exploits were some of the most lucrative.

"Morgan had a commission from the English to sack and raid enemies of the state," Hanselmann said, adding that the captain's tactics infuriated the Spanish government and gave him a substantial following of men on his expeditions. "Now, one man's privateer is another man's pirate," Hanselmann said. "He was a thief; he was a dog."

Professor Frederick Hanselmann recovers a cannon that might have belonged to Henry Morgan at the mouth of the Chagres River in Panama. Foto: Donnie Reid/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Morgan's last great raid was his sacking of Panamá Viejo , now a part of Panama City. At the time, the isthmus separating the Atlantic and Pacific oceans was pivotal for trading silver, gold, gems, furs, sugar and other precious items, and Spain kept other countries out. England, tired of being excluded, sent Morgan there to raid the city.

Although he crashed some of his ships in the Chagres River, he and 1,400 men went on to sack Panamá Viejo on Jan. 28, 1671 .

"He was this really charismatic guy who just didn't quit," Hanselmann said.
Morgan's forces defeated the city's militia, and then they or the Spanish military leaders started a fire that burned the city to the ground.

What Morgan didn't know, because of poor communication methods at the time, is that England and Spain had signed a peace treaty months earlier, Hanselmann said. Morgan was arrested and charged as a pirate when he returned to England but was given a slap on the wrist. He was later knighted and made lieutenant governor of Jamaica. He retired to a sugar plantation in Jamaica, where he died in 1688.

Unearthing a legend
Morgan's ships and weapons sat on the bed of the Chagres River undisturbed until 2008, when Hanselmann, along with fellow archaeologists James Delgado, director of maritime heritage for the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Dominique Rissolo, executive director of the Waitt Institute for Discovery , went looking for them.

They surveyed, mapped and documented submerged sites, shipwrecks and other artifacts along the banks of the river.

Thick coral reefs and violent currents make the Chagres River a dangerous place to dive, Hanselmann said. "It looks like Sarajevo down there. The waves were kicked up. Visibility is a mess," he said.

But the team found eight cannons, ranging from 2 to 6 feet in length, and an anchor under the waves.

After publishing its survey, the team returned in September 2010 with an excavation permit from the Panamanian government and brought up six of the guns. Two others could not be located, but Hanselmann thinks they're still down there.

What makes the researchers believe the wreckage was Morgan's?

A naval vessel would have been outfitted with regulation guns, Hanselmann said. And the cannons his team found are of various sizes. Also, he said, the cannons appear to be French-made.

Morgan's ship, the Satisfaction, was a stolen French vessel, Hanselmann said. The guns are mobile, like those Morgan was known to prefer for firing at cities, he said. Also, guns from a more recent ship — that is, from the mid-1700s — would probably have serial numbers. The guns found near Panama do not, and Hanselmann said that indicates they were probably used during Morgan's time.

Finding and salvaging the cannons won't be the end of the archaeological effort. Being underwater for more than 300 years damaged the iron severely. They had to be transported in water to keep them from falling apart, Hanselmann said.

The cannons will be transferred soon to the Patronato Panamá Viejo , a Panama-based nonprofit conservation group that is seeking to have Panamá Viejo recognized as a World Heritage Site.

Hanselmann said it could take the group several years to reverse the centuries of saltwater intrusion and chemical changes endured by the cannons.

"For the Patronato Panamá Viejo it is very important to be the final depository of the six recovered cannons from the mouth of the Chagres," officials said in a statement. "The inclusion of these cannons in our exhibits is of great importance and will greatly enrich our hall on piracy."

Frederick Hanselmann joined the Texas State faculty in December. At an archaeology lab, he and his students do further research. Foto: Ricardo B. Brazziell/AMERICAN-STATESMAN

The team's discovery made more than just waves in the scientific community.

The makers of the Captain Morgan brand of rum (branded long after the real captain died) last week offered each adult member of the expedition team a barrel of the drink and will rename a section of the Captain Morgan distillery in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands in their honor.

At Texas State, Hanselmann is mainly focused on research but is trying to put together some courses on underwater archaeology and diving for scientific research. He sees his field as romantic and adventurous.

"You never think you're going to get paid to study pirates," Hanselmann said. "I guess some of us never grow up."

pgeorge@statesman.com; 512-392-8750

Fonte: http://www.statesman.com/news/local/team-including-texas-state-professor-recovers-cannons-thought-1335660.html (21/03/2011)