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By the 16th century, Spain's growing wealth from the New World alarmed the rulers of other European countries. Spanish treasure fleets sailing homeward carried enormous amounts of gold seized by the conquistadors. Gold meant wealth. Wealth meant power to raise armies and build warships. Armies and navies could threaten rival kings and monarchs. Indeed, Spain had come to blows on several occasions against its European neighbors over matters of religion and politics. With such a strong background of rivalry and war, French and English monarchs felt compelled to send ships racing across the Atlantic. They were eager to both contain Spanish power and claim shares of wealth from the New World. Since South and Central America were by then very much under Spanish dominion, attention turned further up to North America. French colonies became entrenched in Canada and several Caribbean islands. England also concentrated towards Canada, the Atlantic coast and several islands in the Atlantic and Caribbean. Explorers searched for pearls, mines, furs and any other possible sources of wealth. Forts rose from Canada's Hudson Bay to the Florida's peninsula blocking advancement by competing nations into newly claimed territories. By the late 1600's, the French monarch, King Louis XIV, began contemplating moves into the northern Gulf of Mexico. A move here could block English interests in also locating settlements between Florida and modern-day Texas. It would also be a direct challenge to Spanish power in the area. The French plan was simple. French priests and explorers such as LaSalle had descended down a great river flowing through the Mississippi valley. By discovering the river's mouth by sea, France could claim the length of the Mississippi River; link its colonies from Canada to the Caribbean; and block intrusions by competing countries. The English would be contained to the east and the Spanish back towards Mexico in the southwest. Thus began a race which would place Pensacola Bay and Northwest Florida under Spanish rule and the French in control of Ship Island and a North American empire. In 1698, French-Canadian Pierre LeMoyne d'Iberville set sail from Brest, France with three ships and crews. They were bound for the Caribbean and westward. By order of the King, their mission was to discover, colonize and fortify the mouth of the Mississippi River. While the plan was simple in design, implementation was not. Hearing rumors concerning the purpose of d'Iberville's fleet, Spanish authorities reacted with alacrity and rushed to ready their response. Assuming d'Iberville's initial landfall was the fine harbor within Florida's Pensacola Bay, three Spanish ships with 300 men raced up from Vera Cruz, Mexico to meet the French fleet. To deny use of the bay for French exploration, cannon were quickly positioned to defend the harbor's approaches. French encroachment into Spanish domain was a serious concern. Though little explored, the northern Gulf coast was thought to be part of New Spain. More importantly, foreign colonies so close-by seriously threatened the treasure fleets sailing back to Old Spain. Spanish treasure aboard lumbering galleons had to be protected while sailing in the Gulf of Mexico. In no way could a French settlement be tolerated. History has shown this was not an idle fear by the Spanish authorities. Eleven Spanish military and naval expeditions had sought an earlier French colony hidden on the Texas coast for four years. Ships crisscrossed the Gulf of Mexico exploring bays and bayous and interrogating natives before discovering the remnants of the unsuccessful French colony.
On February 10th, 1699, d'Iberville arrived at Ship Island. Historians say he knew about the island and its deep-water harbor since so little time was needed to find it. This may be true since among d'Iberville's crew were some thirty pirates. Scholars believe Ship Island (Isle de Vassiaux) had long been known as a haven for pirates preying on Spanish treasure fleets. For whatever reason, Ship Island's place in history and the exploration of America was about to begin. Leaving his ships safely anchored in the island's excellent harbor, d'Iberville moved off in smaller boats in search of the Mississippi River. With the help of a Bayogoulan Indian, the river mouth was discovered and France's claim to the Mississippi valley was further assured. Further explorations led to the establishments of settlements we know today on the Gulf Coast as the cities of Mobile, Ocean Springs, Biloxi and New Orleans. The importance of Ship Island during this time of exploration rose and fell as the French capital moved from Biloxi to Mobile or New Orleans, but through the years of the 18th century, cargo ships, settlers and military forces returned again and again to the little island of sand with the safe harbor. During the early days, Ship Island was the gateway and sentinel for French Louisiana-Mississippi. From 1699 on for several decades, warehouse facilities stood on the island supporting mainland colonists and soldiers. The island's location was considered so strategic that plans were studied to construct a fort to deny use of the harbor to enemy ships. Although that fort was never built, it was not uncommon for French warships to guard the anchorage and mainland approaches. Around 1720, thousands of Germans, Swiss and French colonists used the island as a temporary respite from shipboard life before moving to the mainland shore. One legend suggests trees do not exist today on the island's west tip because settlers used scarce wood for shelter and campfires. Whether true or not, this sandy island assisted in another "age of discovery" as settlers and explorers moved ashore and up the Mississippi River valley. At the end of Europe's Seven Years War, France ceded in 1763 all of Louisiana east of the Mississippi River to Britain. Like the French 60 years earlier, Ship Island became a base of operations as British survey parties surveyed newly-won territories including portions of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. During this British reign, records note a family living on Ship Island possessed a herd of between 150 to 200 cattle. Ship Island was ceded again to yet another country by 1814. Over a hundred years after that dash from Vera Cruz across the Gulf of Mexico, Spain took over the island which helped the French gain control of the Mississippi River. This was a reward for allying with revolutionary forces during the American War for Independence. Ironically, Spain's control of this strategic location on the Gulf coast lasted for a few short years. When the Americans claimed Ship Island as part of the Louisiana Purchase from France, it became no longer part of a European empire, but part of a growing new nation called the United States. By 1803, the colonial history of Ship Island was over. However its strategic value had not changed. A fort was constructed to guard the island, its harbor and the surrounding Gulf Coast from New Orleans to Mobile. The structure's name is Fort Massachusetts. Unlike the never-built French fortification, this American fort would not serve to protect a gateway for exploration and settlement. The colonial history of Ship Island was over. Colonies of three nations had by now become part of a new nation. Through the 1800's, Ship Island and its fort took on the new role of preventing the building of empires by would-be colonial powers. The mission for Ship Island became one of defending a young United States against foreign invasion. |
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Last Updated:
1/6/03
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Pierre
Le Moyne d'Iberville arrived at Pensacola Bay on January 25th, 1699 and
found the Spanish cannon crews waiting for him. His ships were not granted
permission to enter the harbor. Under instructions not to fight, d'Iberville
raised anchor and moved his ships westward. France lost the chance to
claim northwest Florida, but sailing further westward brought d'Iberville
closer to accomplishing his mission of discovering the Mississippi River.
