Mystery boat finds port after storm
Posted on 12/02/2002 3:47:13 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Mystery boat finds port after storm
Two Louisiana men uncover a potential archaeological treasure
12/02/2002
HOUMA, La. - Two weeks after Hurricane Lili blew through Terrebonne Parish in early October, Donnie Bergeron and Mike Gambarella went to Lake Decade to search for an aluminum boat that floated away from a fishing camp during the storm.
The duo searching the nearby marsh in a mud boat failed to locate the missing craft but ended the day with a more interesting find.
Entangled with a piece of floating marsh swept away by floodwaters was a 13-foot wooden dugout boat.
"I thought it was a dead porpoise the first time I saw it," Mr. Bergeron said. "Then I thought it was a creosote pole."
What he found was a handmade wooden boat, a type experts say could have floated from as far away as South America.
"I have no idea what it is," said Tom Butler, the director of the Center for Traditional Louisiana Boat Building at Nicholls State in Thibodaux. "It's weird. But I'm going to attempt to find out what it is and where it's from."
The boat, which now sits on Mr. Bergeron's back porch, resembles a torpedo. It is made of a single piece of wood, smooth on the outside and rough and prickly on the inside. The boat's design follows the natural contour of the tree it came from and is chopped to a point at the bow.
"All I want to do is find out the age and history of it," Mr. Bergeron said.
Mr. Gambarella said he did not know what to make of the boat after a detailed inspection.
"It looked weird, but I thought it was a dugout from around here," he said.
Cuts and carvings on the boat were done by hand, and holes atop the vessel were burned into the wood. "That tells you how old it could be," Mr. Bergeron said.
"It might be a thousand years old," Mr. Gambarella said.
Mr. Butler said the boat could be made of "jungle wood" because it is not carved from a tree indigenous to Louisiana or the Gulf Coast.
"We've seen where dugouts have gotten loose in Central and South America and have floated up on beaches here," he said. "I've seen two like that before, but never one like this."
Mr. Butler said a sample of the wood would be sent to the state archeologist's office.
"We want to identify the wood first and foremost," he said.
The sample will be dated, and pictures will be sent to boat experts around the country to help with identification.
Mr. Bergeron said that after more is learned about the boat's origin, he wants to donate it to the Bayou Terrebonne Waterlife Museum in Houma.
"It may not of been made in Terrebonne Parish," Mr. Bergeron said, "but it was found in Terrebonne Parish."
After seeing the picture, I can understand that.
Hey!
I resemble that remark!
You keep that up and you may not get your chance to be an "elder statesman"!
What you said!
Ageism is running rampant!
We demand compensation!
Hope this whippersnapper knows that...
Old Age and Treachery Always Overcomes Youth and Skill"
Amen
Congressman Billybob
Congressman Billybob
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