60 salves abandoned for 15 years on a desert islet of the Indian Ocean

The GRAN (or Groupe de Recherche en Archéologie Navale, a non-profit organization) is going to make archaeological excavation (underwater and on land) on the island of tromelin (France).
Starting of the operation « L’Utile … 1761 : forgotten slaves ».

After leaving Bayonne on November 17th 1760, l’Utile, ship of the East Indies French Company, sank on July 31st 1761on the “Sandy Island” (today Tromelin island), a square kilometre and desert islet.
She carries Madagascan slaves bought fraudulently to be sold on the Island of France (today Mauritius Island).

The crew sails to Madagascar on a craft leaving 60 slaves on the island with food for 3 months and promising them to come back soon.

They didn’t keep their promise and a long time after, on November 29th 1776, The chevalier of Tromelin, commanding the ship La Dauphine, saved eight surviving slaves: seven women and on eight months baby.

A scientific and human adventure:

That island is 470 km for from Madagascar ( in the east) and 560 km far from La Réunion (in the north), although, that coral islet hasn’t got any water or natural resources, it has owned a weather center since 1954.

Tromelin Island

The underwater and land archaeological operation directed by the Groupe de Recherche en Archéologie Navale (GRAN) aims at clearing up the circumstance of the wreck of l’Utile and at the extraordinary conditions of surviving of the forgotten slaves on the desert islet of Tromelin.
For a long time, co-operating with UNESCO, the GRAN research is about slave-traders by studying salve-traders ships. Within the frameworck of that research, the GRAN announces the operation « L’Utile… 1761 : forgotten slaves ».

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