From a Watery Grave: La Belle the Ship that Changed History

Join speaker James E. Bruseth for a presentation of the discovery, excavation, and preservation of the ship La Belle

Co-chairs: Harriet and Truett Latimer; John L. Nau, III

Master of Ceremonies: Welcome Wilson, Jr.

Special Guest: Valérie Baraban, the Consul General of France in Houston

Entertainment by: Pianist/Composer Alex Moreno of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3

11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

THE JUNIOR LEAGUE: 1811 Briar Oaks Lane, Houston, TX 77027 Directions

Houston Heritage Award Recipient: Evelyn H. Boatwright

On a frigid, stormy day in February of 1686, a small French sailing ship lost control and ran aground in Matagorda Bay. The crew had braved an ocean voyage, attacks by pirates, raids by Native Americans, and ravaging diseases under the command of famed explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, hoping to establish a colony in the New World. Pounded in the Texas bay by gale winds and storm surges, La Belle finally slipped beneath the water and sank to the bottom, where it would remain for centuries.
More than 300 years later, Texas Historical Commission archaeologists discovered La Belle’s resting place. Using cutting-edge technology and scientific innovation, investigators excavated the shipwreck and salvaged from its watery grave more than a million artifacts, including bronze guns, muskets, trade beads, axes, rings, bells, dishes, medicines—everything a new-world colony needed for survival.

Authors James E. Bruseth and Toni S. Turner use vivid photographs and engaging descriptions to share the excitement of discovery as they piece together both the ship and its tragic story. For those interested in history, archaeology, or the quest for clues to the past, From a Watery Grave tells a riveting tale of nautical adventure in the seventeenth century and reveals modern scientific archaeology at its best. Bruseth is former director of the archaeology division at the Texas Historical Commission, which sponsored the excavation of La Belle. Bruseth directed the excavation and served as the project’s principal investigator. Toni S. Turner is a freelance writer and fund raiser who assisted in many aspects of the recovery of the shipwreck.

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (November 22, 1643 – March 19, 1687), was a 17th-century French explorer and fur trader in North America. He is best known for an early 1682 expedition in which he canoed the lower Mississippi River from the mouth of the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico; there, on 9 April 1682, he claimed the Mississippi River basin for France after giving it the name La Louisiane.

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.

Houston Heritage Award Recipient: Evelyn H. Boatwright

Master of ceremonies: Welcome Wilson, JR.

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

Reservations for Tickets & Tables

All table and ticket purchases will be assigned a Fair Market Value of $75 per seat.

Traditional auction for your shopping and bidding pleasure will be at the event.

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See photos from 2022 Houston Heritage Luncheon

See photos from 2021 Houston Heritage Luncheon


See photos from 2019 Houston Heritage Luncheon