The last voyage of El Nuevo Constante

by Charles E. Pearson

The Last Voyage of "El Nuevo Constante" is both a compelling historical account of an eighteenth-century Spanish merchantman's sinking and an intriguing archaeological report of its twentieth-century excavation. The historian Paul E. Hoffman and the archaeologist Charles E. Pearson, who participated in researching and salvaging El Nuevo Constante, bring their expertise to bear in relating the fascinating story of that vessel. El Nuevo Constante was part of a dangerously delayed convoy sailing from Veracruz to Cadiz by way of Havana, when, in September, 1766, a hurricane drove it aground on the Louisiana coast. The Spanish government, only recently established in Louisiana, immediately initiated salvage and rescue operations, which continued into November and succeeded in retrieving much cargo of value. For the next 213 years, only the names of some Louisiana topographical features, such as Constance Bayou, preserved the memory of El Nuevo Constante. But when a shrimper rediscovered the