La Belle (ship)

The hull remains of La Belle undergoing reconstruction
History
France
Name	La Belle
Owner	Louis XIV
Operator	René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
Builder	Honoré Mallet
Fate	Shipwrecked
Status	Hull raised and on display at the Bullock Texas State History Museum
General characteristics
Type	barque longue
Tonnage	40–45
Length	54 ft 4 in (16.56 m)
Beam	14 ft 9 in (4.50 m)
Draft	8 ft (2.4 m)

La Belle was one of Robert de La Salle's four ships when he explored the Gulf of Mexico with the ill-fated mission of starting a French colony at the mouth of the Mississippi River in 1685. La Belle was wrecked in present-day Matagorda Bay the following year, dooming La Salle's Texas colony to failure. The wreckage of La Belle lay forgotten until it was discovered by a team of state archaeologists in 1995. The discovery of La Salle's flagship was regarded as one of the most important archaeological finds of the century in Texas, and a major excavation was launched by the state of Texas that, over a period of about a year, recovered the entire shipwreck and over a million artifacts.