Molasses Reef Wreck

The Molasses Reef Shipwreck is the site of a ship which wrecked in the Turks and Caicos Islands early in the 16th century. It is the oldest wreck of a European ship in the Americas to have been scientifically excavated.

In 1976, unlicensed treasure hunters discovered a wreck on Molasses Reef, on the southwestern edge of the Caicos Bank near French Cay. The site of the wreck has been described as a "ship trap". The remains of several other wrecks are scattered on top of and around the earliest wreck. The treasure hunters, who were looking for Spanish treasure ships, recognized that the ordnance in the wreck was from the 1490s or early 1500s, too early for a treasure ship. In 1980, a salvage company organized by those treasure hunters applied for a license from the government of the Turks and Caicos Islands to explore and salvage shipwrecks. After receiving the license, the company announced that it had discovered the wreck of Christopher Columbus' ship Pinta, and anticipated making large profits from marketing artifacts from the Pinta and other wrecks of treasure ships in the area. Concerned about the salvage company's plans, the Turks and Caicos Islands government invited the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University to survey the wreck site. Later a new group arrived in the Turks and Caicos Islands, claiming to have inherited the rights of the earlier salvage company. After receiving permission to explore wrecks other than the Molasses Reef wreck, but not to remove any artifacts, this group proceeded to take artifacts without permission from numerous sites, including Molasses Reef. The government then revoked the company's salvage license, and invited the Institute of Nautical Archaeology to excavate the Molasses Reef Wreck.

When researchers from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology returned to Molasses Reef in 1982 they discovered that extensive damage had occurred since the earlier survey. Someone had used pipe bombs to dislodge artifacts from the wreck, leaving a large crater and damaged artifacts. Over the next three years the archaeologists spent a total of six months excavating the site. They shipped more than ten tons of artifacts to Texas for cleaning, stabilization and study. Responsibility for the wreck and artifacts was transferred to a non-profit entity, Ships of Exploration and Discovery Research, which was set up by the archaeologists working on the project. In 1990 all of the artifacts were returned to the Turks and Caicos Islands and placed in a new National Museum, opened in 1991, housing displays about the wreck.

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