Qualla: French Ship Chameau

French Ship Chameau: Introduction

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The crew of Le Chameau could almost certainly see their destination. After weeks crossing the Atlantic from La Rochelle, the lights or landmarks of Louisbourg would have been tantalizingly close on August 27, 1725, when a storm swept the ship onto rocks just a few kilometers east of the harbor. Every soul aboard perished -- estimates range as high as 316 dead -- along with a cargo of gold and silver coins worth 83,308 livres, earmarked to pay the troops garrisoned in Quebec. The wreck would lie undiscovered for 240 years, its treasure intact, waiting for a man named Alex Storm whose surname proved prophetic.

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French Ship Chameau: A Young Architect's Vision

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Le Chameau was built in Rochefort, France, in 1717, the creation of Blaise Ollivier, a young naval architect who had studied English and Dutch shipyards before designing what he envisioned as a fast, well-armed naval transport -- a type of vessel known as a flute. The ship made s...

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French Ship Chameau: The Last Night

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What happened on the night of August 27, 1725, can only be reconstructed from the wreckage and the absence of survivors. A storm drove Le Chameau onto rocks near what would come to be called Chameau Rock, several kilometers east of the Fortress of Louisbourg. The ship broke apart...

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French Ship Chameau: A Treasure Hunter Named Storm

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In September 1965, Alex Storm, along with Dave MacEachern and Harvey Macleod, found the missing hull of Le Chameau and the treasure it still carried. Storm brought up gold and silver coins -- Louis d'or and other denominations -- and by his own calculations, he had achieved "a ne...

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French Ship Chameau: From Seabed to Museum

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In December 1971, most of the recovered coins and artifacts were auctioned off, scattering Le Chameau's cargo across private collections much as the storm had scattered it across the seabed. But not everything disappeared into private hands. An exhibit about the Chameau is featur...

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