Make 2-col.
Skeleton on La Belle: Tracing the Life of a French Sailor
Collage: combine some things, perhaps wide view of excavation
with the skeleton shown lying on rope, various views of skull,
and reconstructed head, perhaps with beard? This last one
should be faded out.
(The thinking here is that the reconstructed head is not very
realistic. The sailor would have had a lot of unkempt facial hair.
Do you think you could put a beard and moustache on Mr.
Barange’s face? Here’s a few to work with
http://www.beards.org/beard07.php
http://www.midwestbeard.com/cpg1.4.11/displayimage.php?pid
=75&fullsize=1)
Skel-close; The skeleton was found lying atop a coil of anchor
rope in the bow section of La Belle. Photo courtesy Texas
Historical Commission.
Skel-gentry Lab conservator Helen Dewolf and skeletal analyst
Gentry Steele carefully inspect the skull which, to their surprise,
held an intact brain. Dewolf holds the skull in an inverted
position to keep brain matter from spilling out. The brain was
removed by pouring ethanol and water into the skull, a process
which made the tissue float out easily.
Skel-skull; The sailor had lost a number of teeth, as shown by
this frontal view of the skull. Photo courtesy Texas Historical
Commission.
Skel-sockets; caption
Skel-maxilla;; Gum abscesses and broken teeth in the maxilla, or
upper jaw, would have meant considerable suffering for the
sailor. Photo courtesy Texas Historical Commission.
skel-nose; The left nasal area had been fractured.
Skel-ct ; The skull is prepared for CT scan at Photo courtesy
Texas A&M University Conservation Laboratory.
Skel-ct; The skull enters the CT scanner at the Scottish Rite
Hospital in Dallas. The scan will provide digital 3D images of
facial features to aid in reconstruction.
skel-lee. Medical illustrator Denis Lee, shown next to his model
of the sailor’s head. Photo courtesy Texas A&M University
Conservation Laboratory.
Skel-donny; Helen Dewolf lifts the skull from alcohol storage to
for a local television crew. At right is Donny Hamilton, director
of the Conservation Laboratory. Photo courtesy Texas A&M
University Conservation Laboratory.
Skel-barrell A small, empty cask was found next to the skelton
in the bow. Supplies of food and water ran out after the
shipwreck, and a number of sailors died of thirst. Photo courtesy
Texas Historical Commission.
Skel-cup; Found near the skeleton, this pewter cup engraved
with the name C. Barange led researchers to speculate that the
dead sailor was Mr. Barange. Photo courtesy Texas Historical
Commission.
skel-barange; The reconstructed head of the skeleton. Is this the
face of Monsieur C. Barange? Image courtesy Donny Hamilton.
Skel-marker Marker for the sailor at the Texas State Cemetery
in Austin.
Skel-bullock; A reconstruction of the skeleton on the bow of La
Belle is on exhibit at the Bob Bullock State History Museum in
Austin. Photo by Susan Dial.
<p>One of the most surprising discoveries during the excavation
of La Belle was the articulated skeletal remains of an individual,
found splayed over a coil of anchor rope in the bow section, or
forward hold of the boat. Near him were a leather shoe, a
wooden cask, a wallet with two combs inside, and a pewter cup
bearing the inscription, “C. Barange.” Buried for nearly 300
years in the muddy sediments beneath Matagorda Bay, the bones
were in an excellent state of preservation, a fact which raised
hopes for what could be learned about the individual who had
sailed aboard La Belle with La Salle. The varied scientific
analyses were to take the French sailor (or reconstructed parts of
him) on voyages across the country before he was finally buried
in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin, with a host of dignitaries
attending. Although a few bones of another individual were
found in the aft hold of La Belle, it is the skeleton who came to
be known variously as “Individual Two,” or “Mr. Barange,” that
captured the public’s attention. </p>
<p>Conservation of waterlogged bone usually is a fairly
straightforward process. For the skeletal remains from La Belle,
the first step was to remove all of the salt water that had been
absorbed into the bones by immersing them in a series of water
baths. After the soluble salts were removed, the bones were dried
and sealed with resin in acetone. </p>
<p>From this point, the skeleton underwent a series of analyses
conducted by several different researchers. The questions were
many: Who was this individual? Was he C. Barange, as the cup
found near him suggested, and could his DNA be traced to living
members of this family in France? How old was he? What had
his life been like? What did he look like? And finally, how did he
die? </p>
<p>Physical Anthropologist D. Gentry Steele of the Texas A&M
University Department of Anthropology volunteered his time to
perform the skeletal analysis and help answer these questions.
Because even small elements such as the wrist bones and hyoid
were recovered, Steele knew that the body had decomposed in
the position in which it was found. Water action had not washed
these tiny bones away, nor had sea creatures scavenged or
disturbed them. It appeared the body had been quickly covered
over and protected by sediments, all except for a portion of the
right side. Barnacles had attached to the right humerus, ulna, and
femur, suggesting exposure to open sea water for some time.
Based on the skeletal information alone, Steele could not
determine whether the body had floated into the bow of the ship,
the corpse of the individual was placed there prior to the wreck,
or if the man was alive when he entered the bow. </p>
<p>Based on measurements and growth indicators in various
elements, and using statistical comparisons, Steele determined
that the individual was a stout and muscular male of European
descent. He stood between 5 feet 3 inches to 5 feet 7 inches tall,
or what would have been average stature for 17th century
Frenchmen, and he was between 35 and 45 years old at the time
of death. </p>
<p>Life had not been easy for La Belle’s sailor. Although he
showed no signs of fatal trauma or disease, he had suffered a
number of injuries in his lifetime and considerable pain from
medical disorders, including severely abscessed teeth and
infected gums. At some time during his life, his nose had been
broken. Although the cause is not known, the force struck the
left side of his face, breaking his left nasal bone and causing
significant damage to the soft tissue as well. According to Steele
“this pattern of trauma commonly occurs when a right-handed
assailant strikes an opponent he is facing on the left side of the
face.” Whether the sailor was involved in a fist fight, or whether
his nose was broken in a fall or accidental blow, will continue to
be a mystery. </p>
<p>The individual also walked with a limp, and suffered acute
pain in his back, hips, and legs based on a variety of disorders
detected in those regions. ADD more</p>
An examination of the dentition of the sailor revealed another
source of pain in his lifetime. In addition to missing several teeth,
he had numerous severe cavities and abscesses that had eaten
away a hole in his maxilla, or upper jaw. Add using teeth as a
tool? </p>
<p>The skull of La Belle’s individual brought another surprising
find. Encased within was the sailor’s apparently intact brain.
The organ was carefully removed by blah blah****</p>
Reconstructing the Face
<p>A series of procedures was undertaken to try to determine
what La Belle’s sailor looked like. First, an exact replica of the
skull was made using stereo lithography. The skull was scanned
through a CT (computer tomography) scanner at the Texas
Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas to obtain detailed,
3D digital images of all the diagnostic features. The scan also
revealed how much of the brain was preserved inside the skull.
At CyberForm International in Arlington, Texas, the digital data
was then used in a casting process known as stereolithography to
create two resin replicas of the skull. </p>
<p>Finally, with information about the sailor’s age, stature, and
ethnicity derived from the skeletal analysis, Denis Lee of the
University of Michigan began to reconstruct the details of the
face. A medical illustrator, Lee had tackled a number of similar
facial reconstructions in the past, including that of the 11,000year-old woman nicknamed “Leanne,” excavated from a burial at
the Wilson-Leonard site near Leander, Texas. Lee applied bits
of clay to the resin cast of the skull, shaping it to match facial
muscles, then added another layer of clay to simulate skin.
Applying skin color, hair, and eye color was conjectural, as there
is no way to know these attributes based on skeletal remains. It is
likely, however, that the sailor, having experienced considerable
hardship and months at sea, would have appeared weathered and
gaunt, with unkempt beard and hair. Lee’s final mold was
painted without facial hair in order to show the features of the
face, perhaps as the sailor may have looked as he embarked from
France in 1684. </p>
The Sailor’s Fate
<p>For researchers, other questions remained to be answered:
Who was the sailor on La Belle? Archeologist James Bruseth,
who had overseen the skeleton’s excavation, had hopes that, with
viable DNA samples, the sailor’s identity might be tracked in
France. He had located numerous individuals with the name,
Barange, living in Rouen, the port city from which La Belle set
sail more than 300 years ago. The plan was to compare the gene
profile of the Belle sailor with that of modern members of
Barnge families, hoping to find connections. </p>
<p>At the A&M lab, samples were taken from the brain, as well
as from several bones and teeth. Analysis began. But a host of
tiny sea creatures brought the search for the sailor’s identity to a
halt. Even though the skeleton was well-preserved and had been
covered by sediments in the bay, marine micro-organisms had
moved into the bone and brain, contaminating the DNA.
Analysis would have revealed their genetic profile, not that of the
Belle’s sailor. </p>
<p> A final question regarding the skeleton, then, is: How did
the sailor die? Analyst Steele found no evidence of disease or
trauma serious enough to have caused the man’s death. Indeed,
the condition of the skeleton indicated that the man had been in
relatively good health, with the exception of having very bad
teeth, arthritis and other joint problems. Rather than finding clues
from the bones, the answer to this question may lie in an historic
journal kept by one of La Salle’s most trusted companions, Henri
Joutel. As the ship lay wrecked on the sandbar in the days
following the storm, Joutel wrote, conditions became
increasingly desperate. Although they were only about a quarter
mile from shore, few sailors knew how to swim. A small boat
with five men was sent ashore to obtain fresh water, but the men
never returned and were presumed drowned. </p>
<p><em> The lack of water added to the loss of the five best men
on board forebode a deadly end for the survivors. Meanwhile,
they stayed a few more days in the same place waiting to learn
something. During this time, several people among them died
from a lack of water.</em></p>
<p>Of the original 27 people assigned to stay on board the ship,
apparently only six survived. With the captain, who had been
drinking brandy for days, they finally made it to a small
peninsula where they set up camp. Over the next several weeks,
La Belle sunk further into the bay, taking with it, the body of the
sailor. </p>
<p>In the view of Bruseth and other researchers, the sailor likely
died of dehydration. He may have gone to the bow area, where
hammocks or bunks were provided for the sailors, and fallen
asleep. When La Belle ran aground during the storm, he may
have fallen from his resting place onto the coil of rope. Or he
may have survived the storm and died afterward. As in the case
of the sailor’s identity, there are some questions that will remain
unanswered. </p>
<p>On February 3, 2004, the sailor’s remains were buried in the
Texas State Cemetery in Austin. The French ambassador to the
United States and the Texas Secretary of State were in
attendance, along with some 400 members of the public.
To learn more about the burial service for La Belle’s sailor, see
Belle Sailor Honored at Special Funeral
www.thc.state.tx.us/lasalle/lasburial.shtml. </p>