A shipwreck was discovered at Pointe aux Feuilles in the Grand Port Bay on the east coast of Mauritius (Fig. 1a) on 10 October 2004 by Armiyo Vurdapa Naiken, head diver of the Fish Farm of Mahebourg. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) was...
moreA shipwreck was discovered at Pointe aux Feuilles in the Grand Port Bay on the east coast of Mauritius (Fig. 1a) on 10 October 2004 by Armiyo Vurdapa Naiken, head diver of the Fish Farm of Mahebourg. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) was immediately informed by the Mauritius Marine Conservation Society (MMCS), followed by the Mauritius Museums Council and the National Heritage Fund. With the support of the PMO two underwater archaeologists were requested to inspect the newly discovered wreck. Since Mauritius has been populated exclusively by migrants coming from the sea, this wreck holds a particular potential to uncover and understand part of the unknown maritime past of this island. According to some preliminary archival researches, only two known local ships wrecked in the vicinity of the one recently found, namely le Coureur and l'Actif. It will be shown that all evidences gathered tend to endorse the opinion that the wreck at Pointe aux Feuilles is the slave trader le Coureur. Hence, this paper aims to present the status of the research undertaken during more than two years on the wreck, and which was focused on illustrating part of Mauritius maritime history, understanding Mauritius ship construction, and identifying it.
