Figure 1. Etoile shipwreck in 2004. Picture by A. Rosenfeld.
Figure 1. Etoile shipwreck in 2004. Picture by A. Rosenfeld.

Etoile Shipwreck

Filipe Castro, Diogo Cerezo Morera

Country: Madagascar

Place: Star Reefs, Recif de l’Etoile, or Harandriakan’ ny Kintana

Type: Unknown

Identified: No.

Dated: Mid-16th century

 

Introduction

This shipwreck was probably found by a group of French sport divers in 2004. The site was described as a mound of copper ingots and perhaps 40 bronze guns, suggesting an outbound vessel. An unknown number of anchors were embedded in the coral nearby. One gold coin of 4000 reis from D. João III (k. 1521-1557) suggest a date in the second or third quarter of the 16th century. The guns were undoubtedly Portuguese.

Figure 1. Etoile shipwreck in 2004. Picture by A. Rosenfeld.
Figure 1. Etoile shipwreck in 2004. Picture by A. Rosenfeld.

A group of 12 small bronze guns – about 155 cm long – were raised and exported, but they were caught in Mayotte and seized by intervention of the French DRASMM. One of these guns was octagonal. It is probable that more guns were raised and sold elsewhere.

Figure 2. Guns apprehended in Mayotte in 2004. The octogonal gun is not in the picture.
Figure 2. Guns apprehended in Mayotte in 2004. The octogonal gun is not in the picture.

Story of the site

The site was indicated to Mr. Peyre by fishermen in 2005. A first visit to the site showed an important shipwreck site with a unique collection of bronze guns, about 30, a mound of copper ingots of different sizes and in two shapes, hemispherical and flat, weighing perhaps 50 tons, and fragments of ivory tusks.

The guns seemed to fall into three types: breech loaders (berços), measuring 155 cm and 260 cm long, and muzzle loaders measuring 310 cm (Peyre 2008). 

Figure 3. Smaller breech loading guns (Peyre 2012).
Figure 3. Smaller breech loading guns (Peyre 2012).
Figure 4. Larger breech loading guns (Peyre 2012).
Figure 4. Larger breech loading guns (Peyre 2012).
Figure 5. Large guns (Peyre 2012).
Figure 5. Large guns (Peyre 2012).

In 2006 Mr. Peyre organized a survey to record the site, but upon arriving realized that 12 small bronze guns had been already looted and apprehended at Mayotte, about to be exported to France.

In 2008 Mr. Peyre went back and carried out a magnetometer survey, identifying a second site. The main site, named Etoile 1, was mapped. Several anchors, three muzzle loaders 310 cm in length, 10 berços with 155 cm of length and 4.5 cm of bore, 12 berços with 260 cm of length and 6 cm in bore, some lead shots, 5 cm in diameter with an iron dice inside, and another two muzzle loaders in the second site, inside the lagoon.

The older fishermen mentioned an abundant quantity of “marmites,” although it was impossible to understand what these were.

The hemispherical copper ingots weight up to 15 Kg, and the flat ingots around 10 Kg, measuring about 40 x 60 cm.

Etoile Shipwreck
Figure 6. Copper ingots (Peyre 2012).
Figure 6. Copper ingots (Peyre 2012).

Some ivory tusks were identified and a piece of the rigging, which in the published picture looked like a deadeye and the iron strap that connected it to the chainwale.

Small amounts of ballast were sighted, mostly calcium carbonate stones, eroded and spread around in the lagoon.

The strong currents eroded the site.

In 2009 the team lead by Jean-Christofe Peyre returned to the site and found that one large unidentified piece of bronze was gone, although they sighted a third one. One or both were raised. These pieces of bronze were identified as moulds of some kind. The two large guns previously sighted in the lagoon had also been looted.

A third site with remains of the Portuguese shipwreck is found, with copper ingots, circa 500 m from the first site. Two bronze 260 cm berços are found, together with another purported copper mould.

Three different shipwrecks were identified in this reef. The Portuguese 16th century ship, a 19th century shipwreck with glass beads, and a 20th century shipwreck with a cargo of arsenopyrite.

In 2012 a survey with a magnetomer to the north of the site finds new targets, which could not be inspected at the time.

Figure 7. Main Site (Etoile 1) plan, elaborated by Mr. Peyre’s team (2009).
Figure 7. Main Site (Etoile 1) plan, elaborated by Mr. Peyre’s team (2009).

Peyre’s group accepted the identification of this vessel as the Sto. Ildefonso, lost in this area in 1527. This tentative identification was proposed by Mr. Pierre van den Boogaerde (2009). The number and typology of the guns suggests a later date, around the middle of the 16th century.

A second cluster of artifacts was located in 2009, by Mr. Peyre’s team, consisting of two large 310 cm guns and copper ingots.

Mr. Peyre’s report indicates four sites on this reef where parts of the ship ended up resting, given the dynamic nature of the sea in this area. The site designated Etoile 1 may be the original site of the shipwreck, where the heavier cargo was thrown overboard.  The second site, with the remains of the ballast, may be the ship’s bottom, and the third and forth sites seem to be the result of the wreckage process.

In 2013 Mr. Peyre bought two large 3.10 m guns from the looters.

Figure 8. One of the guns purchased (Peyre 2012).
Figure 8. One of the guns purchased (Peyre 2012).
Figure 9. Breeches of the guns purchased (Peyre 2013).
Figure 9. Breeches of the guns purchased (Peyre 2013).

A second shipwreck, Etoile 2, more recent, with carnelian beads, was located.

Team

2004 – Alexis Rosenfeld and three colleagues.

2006 – Jean Christophe Peyre, Eric Gilli, André Amoros, Andréa Gobetti, Eric Citone, François Sarti.

2008 – Jean Christophe Peyre, Mbolatlana Ranorohantamalala, Jocelyn Anuara, Ezra Rakotondrahery, Frédéric Lucas, and Marc Noverraz.

Ballast

Ballast is not referred in the salvage accounts, but later, in 2008, a ballast mound was found nearby, probably in the place where the bottom of this ship came to rest, designated as Etoile 2 site.

Anchors

An undetermined number of anchors was mentioned, but it was difficult to say if they were all related to the shipwreck.

Guns

Figure 10. Detail showing armillary sphere and the maker’s mark.
Figure 10. Detail showing armillary sphere and the maker’s mark.

More than 40 guns were probably resting on this site.

Mr. Peyre refers three types: breech loaders with 155 cm and 260 cm, and muzzle loaders with 310 cm.  Many of these guns have the Portuguese arms (left) and some have makers’ marks, but the pictures published do not allow us to identify the makers.

At least six of the 260 cm breech loaders appeared for sale on the internet – at a site named www.cannonsuperstore.com – together with an unknown number of copper ingots.

As we write this synopsis about this interesting shipwreck, in 2020, we have no news of the destiny of this gun collection, and no knowledge of a published inventory of the guns.

Figure 11. Large berços allegedly for sale, possibly from the Etoile shipwreck site.
Figure 11. Large berços allegedly for sale, possibly from the Etoile shipwreck site.

Guns – 260 cm breech loaders? – allegedly for sale in the website referred above (www.cannonsuperstore.com).

Cargo

This ship carried a large quantity of copper in semi-spherical ingots with a diameter of around 20 cm and weighing around 7 Kg, and plaques of copper.  Analysis of two ingots returned an alloy with 98.2% of copper.

Figure 12. Copper ingots for sale, allegedly from the Etoile shipwreck.
Figure 12. Copper ingots for sale, allegedly from the Etoile shipwreck.

The finders mentioned that some flat ingots were marked with the letters “awl.”  A picture from these ingots shows the well-known Fugger mark, typical in Portuguese export ingots of this time.

There is no catalogue of the ingots and it is therefore impossible to know the variation of weights and diameters, shapes and marks.  For instance, in the Bom Jesus shipwreck (1533) the Fugger marks appeared in three different versions (Chirikure et al. 2010).

Figure 13. Fugger mark on a copper ingot.
Figure 13. Fugger mark on a copper ingot.

Some elephant tusks were present, mostly broken and embedded in the coral.

 

Iron Concretions

No information.

Hull remains

No hull remains were reported.

Caulking

Not reported.

Fasteners

Not reported.

Size and scantlings

The number of guns suggests a large vessel but no hull remains are reported.

Wood

No timbers were reported.

References

Boogaerde, Pierre van den, 2009. Shipwrecks of Madagascar. NY: Eloquent Books.

Chirikure, S., Sinamai, A., Goagoses, E., Mubusisi, M., and Ndoro, W., 2010 "Maritime Archaeology and Trans-Oceanic Trade: A Case Study of the Oranjemund Shipwreck Cargo, Namibia," in Journal of Maritime Studies 5:37-55.

Lane, Paul, 2012. “ Maritime and Shipwreck Archaeology in the Western Indian Ocean and Southern Red Sea: An Overview of Past and Current Research” Journal of Maritime Archaeology, 7:9-41.

Peyre, Jean Christophe, 2008. Raport No. 1. Missions. Janvier-Decembre 2008. Digital Report.

Peyre, Jean Christophe, 2009. Raport No. 2. Missions. May – Juin 2009. Digital Report.

Peyre, Jean Christophe, 2012. Incursion trop courte sur le récif de l’Etoile. 2012. Digital Report.

Peyre, Jean Christophe, 2013. Raport rapport de mission. Mars – May 2013. Digital Report.

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