Archaeologists have discovered four 18th-century shipwrecks off the coast of North Carolina, including what may be the wreck of La Fortuna, a Spanish privateer from Cuba that exploded during an attack in 1748.
The wrecks were found near Brunswick Town, a major Colonial port on the southern coast of North Carolina. The town was the first successful European settlement of the Cape Fear region (named due to 16th-century sailors' fears of getting shipwrecked), and the port was used to export pine products like tar and turpentine used by the Royal Navy. But archaeologists surveying the area had not expected to find such a large number of wrecks and colonial artifacts.
