East Carolina University’s Program in Maritime Studies located four wreck sites near Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site on the Cape Fear River, Popular Science reported. One of the vessels may be La Fortuna, a Spanish privateer that sank on 3 September 1748 after raiding the British settlement at Brunswick.
Researchers linked the site to the privateer through an eighteenth-century cannon pulled from the river in 1985 and by timber samples cut from Monterey or Mexican cypress—tree species once harvested for shipbuilding in Spanish Caribbean colonies. The university noted that no other Spanish wreck from the period is documented in the area.
Maritime-studies graduate student Cory van Hees encountered the structure while surveying a colonial wharf. “While I was lost, looking for the northern end of the pier, I came across several wooden frames that barely protruded from the clayey mud,” said Van Hees, according to El Mundo. “It was kind of overwhelming and a little emotional-feeling, once it set in,” he said. Team leader Jason Raupp later confirmed that the timbers belonged to a wreck and could represent La Fortuna.
“We are extremely excited about these important sites, as each will help us better understand the role of this locality as one of the first colonial port cities in the state,” said Raupp.
Besides the presumed privateer, archaeologists recorded a colonial flatboat used for river transport, a possible barge built for land reclamation, and another vessel still mostly buried. The team also mapped two wooden piers, two docks, and numerous artifacts tied to trade and conflict. More than forty timbers were moved to the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology’s Queen Anne’s Revenge Conservation Laboratory for study.
Ongoing erosion from wave action, dredging, and storms threatens the exposed remains, and specialists warned that recovery must proceed quickly before further deterioration. East Carolina University emphasized that more analysis is needed before definitively identifying any of the wrecks, yet scholars said confirmation of La Fortuna would enrich understanding of the Spanish presence along the North Carolina coast.
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