Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 16

The Western European Coarse Earthenwares from the Wreck of the Machault

by K. J. Barton

Introduction

The Machault was one of six ships of a French relief fleet which left Bordeaux on 10 April 1760 to carry supplies to New France. Soon after leaving port two of the ships were captured by the British and later a third foundered near the Azores Islands. The Machault, the other remaining French ships, the Bienfaisant and the Marquis de Malauze, and a number of captured British vessels anchored in the mouth of Restigouche River at the head of Chaleur Bay to await instructions from Montreal. There they were attacked by a British fleet and on 8 July 1760 the Machault, the bulk of its cargo still on board, was blown up and sunk to prevent the British from capturing it (Beattie and Pothier 1976).

Walter Zacharchuk of the National Historic Parks and Sites Branch directed the underwater excavation of the Machault in 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972. A large number of the artifacts recovered from the ship were ceramics and these included coarse earthenwares, tin-glazed earthenwares, porcelain and some salt-glazed stonewares. Most of the ceramics were found in the port section of the bow. Evidence indicates that the bulk of the ceramics were possibly shipped in barrels and that some delicate porcelain had been packed in straw, but in what material the other ceramics had been packed is not known (Zacharchuk: pers. com.).

The importance of the study lies in its providing a well-dated closed context for material hitherto only very generally datable from European and British contexts.

In the following discussion. ves sels are divided according to their form. All rim, base and height measurements in the tables are in centimetres. Colours are further described using the Munsell colour notation system (Munsell Color Company 1960) in Appendix C.