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17th century shipwreck on the move in Texas
A famed French explorer's ship that sank off the coast of Texas more than three centuries ago is on the move again.
The preserved keel and other large pieces of Rene-Robert Cavelier Sieur de la Salle's vessel, La Belle, have been loaded onto a flat-bed truck at a Texas A&M University lab for transfer to the state museum in Austin, about 85 miles to the west.
It's the final stop in a voyage that began in 1685 with the explorer's ill-fated expedition to find the mouth of the Mississippi River. The ship sank in a storm, La Salle was killed by his own men and the French were unable to colonize what is now Texas.
The wreck was discovered about two decades ago and retrieved by archaeologists.
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