Welcome to the Slave Ship Trouvadore
Records found in the Americas, Bahamas, UK, Cuba and Jamaica have confirmed the existence of Trouvadore. A ship that wrecked off East Caicos in the Turks and Caicos Islands in 1841. Its cargo of 193 Africans, captured to be sold into slavery, miraculously survived the wrecking and were freed in the Turks and Caicos Islands...
LATEST UPDATE The 2008 Trouvadore Expedition is underway! So far it's been a very exciting journey. For periodic updates from various team members, be sure to visit our 2008 Expedition Diary...the link is on the left of this page. On July 5, 2008 the Turks & Caicos National Museum in partnership with Ships of Discovery will return to the field to continue the search for the slave ship Trouvadore In September 2007 an article was published online at the African Diaspora Archaeology Network. The article The Trouvadore Project: The Legacy of a Sunken Slave Ship can be downloaded as a pdf. In January 2007 the Trouvadore Team hosted a session on the project at the Society of Historical Archaeologist meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia, USA. For more information see SHA Williamsburg Meeting.
Background In 1993 a chance discovery in a series of letters in America started the search for a slave ship wrecked off East Caicos in March 1841. Since 1993 the Turks and Caicos National Museum and Ships of Discovery have carried out extensive research in archives in 8 countries on three continents to uncover the story of this slave ship, Trouvadore With the archival research nearly complete the project turned its attention to looking for the wreck. In 2004 a survey was carried out and a wooden shipwreck was discovered. The team returned in 2006 to test excavate the wooden shipwreck and conduct a magnetometer survey of the lagoon and fringing reef. In July 2008 the project team will return to the field. Once again under the direction of Dr. Donald H. Keith, the mission has been deepened to include extensive excavation of the shipwreck thought to be Trouvadore and broadened to include the search for two US Navy ships wrecked on Providenciales in 1816 and 1848 while engaged in the cat-and-mouse game of piracy suppression and slave ship interdiction. Taken together, the three ships represent both the “cat” and the “mouse” and illustrate the risks taken by illegal slave traders and the US Navy’s commitment to eradicating the practice. The 2008 Expedition has received funding from: NOAA Ocean Exploration Program, Turks and Caicos Islands Conservation Fund, the Lima Foundation, the Dayton Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, the Frey Family Fund, and Friends of the Turks and Caicos National Museum.