The Diaries
 
November 2nd, 2006
:: 2006 :: 7/07 - 11/09 - 10/10 - 11/10 - 12/10 - 13/10 - 14/10 - 16/10 - 17/10 - 18/10 - 19/10 - 20/10 - 21/10 - 23/10 - 24/10 - 25/10 - 26/10 - 27/10 - 28/10 - 30/10 - 31/10 - 01/11 - 02/11 - 03/11- 04/11 - 06/11 - 07/11 - 08/11 - 10/11
- Increasing emotion -

Sunset, western beach
Credit : Max Guérout

Good news never come alone… After the wind got up as usual, it then abated at the end of the morning; therefore we hoped to be able to perform the last measures on the wreck as well as go and film the north-western anchor on the following day. The divers were happy to get rid of their shovel for a while.

One finding followed another on the Malagasies’ house site. Yesterday we stopped scrubbing where the sand layer covered the ground left in 1776. Thomas had just started to scrub the underlying layer when he found another container. It was a copper cup laid on the ground against a wall which base was formed by two vertical beach rock plates. Unlike the containers we found on the previous days, the cup was intact and in one piece. It was in the right archaeological layer and when the ground was totally cleared some time later, everybody was surprised as though they were witnessing a suspended gesture: a sail had just loomed on the horizon, the women rushed in that direction and one of them laid the container she was holding in her hand. Nobody came and took it back before us.

Global view of the probing site
Credit : Max Guérout

We realized that apart from giving sad evidence of the slavery, this site also revealed a set of great importance.

This also allowed us to confirm the findings of the previous days because we found the containers in the backfill, and even though they obviously belonged to the kitchen utensils of the house, a small doubt remained. Some time later, another –repaired- cup was found on the original soil two metres away from the previous one, next to the nails of the ship framework.

The first intact cup in one piece
Credit : Max Guérout

The bird and turtle bones we found in the soil gave new information about the castaways’ diet; the ash present everywhere until the final level confirmed the survivors’ testimonies about the constant use of fire till the end.  

In the north, the sea completely modified the shape of the sand strip. It used to be incurved towards the west; after three or four days it became almost straight. The big wave trains transported hundreds of tons of sand when they crossed.

Rédacteur : M. Guérout

      © GRAN 2004 - 2006