Divers from Texas State University raise a cannon believed to have belonged to the pirate Henry Morgan, off the coast of Panama.
A great article just came out in Archaeology Magazine on the search for Henry Morgan’s shipwrecks off the coast of Panama. Fritz Hanselmann, the director of the project, is a friend and colleague of LAMP and a former lecturer at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum. A number of cannons have already been found in the area, and there are five wrecks of Morgan’s lost somewhere in the vicinity.
From Archaeology Magazine:
Since the first trans-isthmus railroad opened in 1855, the mouth of the Chagres River has been a backwater surrounded by a clotted jungle full of anteaters, toucans, and bellowing howler monkeys. On a promontory above, shaped like the prow of a massive ship, sit the ruins of El Castillo de San Lorenzo el Real de Chagre, or Fort San Lorenzo, which defended the important trade route between 1626 and 1741. It was sacked several times, including by Morgan’s men on their way to Panama City in 1671. Fritz Hanselmann, an underwater archaeologist at Texas State University, is looking for evidence of the privateer’s Panamanian raid—but not in the fort. He’s focused on a string of whitecaps in the sea 200 yards from it, treacherous Lajas Reef, which sank five of Morgan’s ships, including his flagship Satisfaction.
Congratulations to Fritz for getting great media coverage for a first-class shipwreck project. Click here to read the whole article!