Alejandro's Update on the Galliffet Site - Part 1
Alejandro explaining his view of the wreck in Playa Preciosa.
He wrote his version in Spanish and translated it using Google.
The sinking of the eighteenth century Marquis Galliffet
Much has been said the wreck of the Marquis de Galliffet from 20 years ago when Burt Webber recovery site a bronze bell that had the date 1770 and the name of the Marquis de Galliffet. Since then he had not been given much importance because historically there are some files that correspond to a boat with the same name and same century that took slaves from Africa and was lost off the coast of Hispaniola.
Many assert that this wreck is the aforementioned slave ship, but after a year of excavations at the site, I can confirm that we are talking about the same boat. I say this because the remains of the nave are covered under a very hard layer completely dead coral, which for over a year we have explored with our metal detectors and have recovered a lot of valuable historical information and artifacts that demystify the fact that it is a slave ship, as we observed for over excavated
concretions and railways, we can not find a single shackle which is one of the most common materials found on a slave ship.
Another important fact is that the slave ships were very dirty and for carrying VIPs on board and say this, have recovered the silver buckles and a seal belonging to a Count of which are investigating its origin, leaves much to think. The work in this archaeological site has not been easy, but every day we're getting more, at least we know where this bow (eastward) the kitchen area, the area where baked and everything matches the plans at the time. As it is not easy to explain this site, I developed a very illustrative plan so they can understand
the difficulty of the place.
So far we have recovered 105 artifacts, but we know there are many more surprises in the coral-covered cracks that soon
we will explore. Remember that a count was traveling with his personal belongings that we have not found so far and we are waiting under the water in a maze of coral that intrinsic.
Alejandro Selmi
Archaeology Director