The ship was found listing twenty-one degrees to starboard. This would naturally cause artifacts to shift to starboard within the hull and to spill outside of the hull as the propwash deflector further disturbed the artifacts assemblage. This device forces water at a high rate down on top of the site, removing overburden but also displacing artifacts within the impact zone. The propwash deflector was first positioned on the port side of the wreck then repositioned over the bow and finally just aft of the forward bulkhead. The sonar image above details the blower holes on the site.
II. Artifact DistributionCeramic Artifact An important area of common interest to nautical archaeologists is ceramics. Ceramics are far and away the most common source of dating evidence, not to mention its value as an indicator of status, cultural contact and trade. Studying related groups from several wreck sites may enhance this value. La Belle provides a revealing case study, since the archaeological contexts provided by the wreck is enhanced by a knowledge of it origin and subsequent itinerary and by documentation of its provisioning prior to the voyage.
Largest Groupings of Ceramics
A fairly consistent scatter of ceramic artifacts appears throughout the wreckage aft of the forward bulkhead, with a heavy concentration immediately aft of the forward bulkhead. The rest of the finds seem to be fairly distributed across the wreck. Along with these finds, several complete features of ceramics were recovered in 1995. Of the recovered artifacts, 98% of the ceramic artifacts have been conserved and their type has been determined. Only 25% have been identified as to their original function and only 9% have been grouped to reflect individual vessels.
