For a long time, a concreted iron mass at the centre of the wreck resisted all attempts to remove it. It was composed of cannonballs, both round-shot and bar-shot, for the ship's cannons. They had been stored just before the mainmast; when the ship sank, they covered the central zone of the wreck, including the mainmast step, the pump-well and the bilge pump. It was finally dislodged in 2005, which allowed researchers to bring to the surface several of the cannonballs used aboard the Dauphine and to study the ship's pump-well. The team was able to remove and study the tube of one of the two ship's bilge pumps, which was turned in elm.
