Spanish treasure fleet

[corsair91]

Spanish treasure fleet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_treasure_fleet

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Spanish-treasure-fleet


1566 to 1790

After 1790 Navy Frigates or Ships of the line were used as required


Interesting to find out that most fleet losses were due to severe weather
and not pirate/privateer or enemy warship action.

The only significant loss was the 1628 capture of the fleet by the Dutch
admiral Piet Hein
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Pieterszoon_Hein

In the case of the Manila Treasure Galleons
(Philippines to Mexico - Acapulco, mule train to Veracruz and then shipped to Spain)

The British only ever managed to capture a total of 4.

Not the impression generally given by most movies and books.

[corsair91]

1715 Treasure Fleet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1715_Treasure_Fleet

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hurricane-sinks-spanish-treasure-ships

Wrecked by a hurricane on the Florida Treasure Coast


Ships included:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urca_de_Lima
original name of the ship was Santísima Trinidad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hampton_Court_(1678)
70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy
Captured by the French and sold later to Spain.
Flagship of the ill-fated 1715 Treasure Fleet that was wrecked by a hurricane on the Florida Treasure Coast.


Santo Cristo de San Roman
Nuestra Señora de las Nieves
Nuestra Señora del Rosario y San Francisco Xavier
Nuestra Señora de Carmen y San Antonio

[corsair91]

Spanish treasure fleet

http://theageofpirates.com/miscellaneous/spanish-treasure-fleet/


The Spanish treasure fleet was an annual convoy used to transport goods between the Spanish Empire in the Americas and metropolitan Spain in Europe. Large trade galleons would carrying riches from the colonies would gather into a fleet in Havana before sailing eastward across the Atlantic to Spain. Because of the vast wealth aboard these ships, the treasure fleet was the holy grail of targets for pirates. Capturing just one ship could bring a pirate large sums of gold, and make them famous for life.

When Spanish settlers first arrived in the Caribbean, the colonies they set up were not completely self-sufficient. Many towns relied on regular imports of goods from Spain in order to survive, and even those capable of existing on their own still required trade to obtain items such as luxury goods, European books, and tools. Additionally, the mercantilist laws of Spain forbade its colonies from trading with any other nations, so these settlements could only export goods to other colonies or back home to Europe. This meant that the annual arrival of the treasure fleet was one of the most important events to the economy of the Spanish Empire.

Once a year, two fleets sailed from Spain carrying the goods required by the colonies. These two fleets would separate upon entering the Caribbean. One would head south, stopping at the towns along the northern coast of South America, before heading to Panama. The second would head west into the Gulf of Mexico. Both fleets traded with the Spanish colonies throughout the New World, exchanging goods from Europe for the products they generated. In the Caribbean, these products were usually agricultural products such as tobacco, sugar, and spices.

The primary destination of the southern fleet was Nombre de Dios, in Panama. Here it would pick up silver from the mines of Peru and Chile. After being mined, the silver metal was transported up the Pacific coast of South America to Panama. From there, it was carried by mule on the Spanish Silver Train to Nombre de Dios, where it awaited the arrival of the treasure fleet. After the privateer Francis Drake sacked the city in 1572, the flow of silver was redirected to the nearby town of Portobelo, which was easier to protect – and so the treasure fleet began to visited that city instead. This fleet would also visit Margarita to obtain the pearls which were harvested from the local oysters.

The second fleet would make its way to Veracruz in Mexico. At this city, it was loaded with the gold and silver from the Spanish holdings in the former Aztec Empire. It also sometimes took on cargoes of porcelain, carried across the Pacific from China and overland to the Gulf by mule.

After exchanging their goods for the wealth of the colonies, the two fleets would head to Havana, the largest port of the Spanish Empire. From March through August the galleons trickled into Havana Bay, where they remained under the protection of the large forts and the Spanish Armada. In September, once all the ships had arrived, they would set sail for Europe on the winds of the Gulf Stream, with the navy guarding them the whole way. The purpose of this rendezvous was to make it harder for pirates to seize any of the vessels – by sailing together, they could protect each other, and the armada had only one fleet to guard.

The treasure fleet was the richest target any pirate could hope to capture. One of the earliest to do so was Jean Fleury, a French privateer who captured several of the galleons carrying Mexican gold in 1522. This attack occurred before the royal decree requiring all the ships to gather in Havana before setting sail, and helped convince the Spaniards to fortify their towns and protect the fleet. In 1628, a squadron of sloops under command of the Dutch admiral and privateer Piet Hein surprised the fleet off Cuba, and seized sixteen vessels. Despite these successes, few managed to conduct a successful raid on the treasure fleet. The strong protection made it one of the most successful naval operations in history, and most later attacks required the involvement of regular naval forces in wartime.

[corsair91]

Jean Fleury

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Fleury

(died 1527)

French naval officer and privateer

He is best known for the capture of two out of the three Spanish galleons carrying the Aztec treasure of Hernan Cortes from Mexico to Spain and one ship from Santo Domingo in 1522.

The Spanish responded to the raid by fortifying nearly all their major ports and cities in the Caribbean.
Since the loss of this treasure all the ships that traveled from America to Europe did it escorted, originating the system known as the Spanish treasure fleet.

Fleury was eventually captured by the Spanish and hanged as a pirate in 1527.

[corsair91]

Portuguese India Armadas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_India_Armadas


The Portuguese India Armadas (Armadas da Índia) were the fleets of ships, organized by the crown of the Kingdom of Portugal and dispatched on an annual basis from Portugal to India, principally Goa. These armadas undertook the Carreira da Índia ("India Run"), following the sea route around the Cape of Good Hope first opened up by Vasco da Gama in 1497–1499.


Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_discovery_of_the_sea_route_to_India

1st Portuguese India Armada


Vasco da Gama
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_da_Gama

Da Gama led two of the Portuguese India Armadas, the first and the fourth.


2nd Portuguese India Armada (Cabral, 1500)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2nd_Portuguese_India_Armada_(Cabral,_1500)


3rd Portuguese India Armada (Nova, 1501)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_Portuguese_India_Armada_(Nova,_1501)

The Third Armada discovered the uninhabited islands of Ascension and Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean


4th Portuguese India Armada (Gama, 1502)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4th_Portuguese_India_Armada_(Gama,_1502)


5th Portuguese India Armada (Albuquerque, 1503)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5th_Portuguese_India_Armada_(Albuquerque,_1503)


6th Portuguese India Armada (Albergaria, 1504)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6th_Portuguese_India_Armada_(Albergaria,_1504)


7th Portuguese India Armada (Almeida, 1505)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7th_Portuguese_India_Armada_(Almeida,_1505)


1506 – 8th Portuguese India Armada (Cunha)
1507 – 9th Portuguese India Armada (Mello)
1508 – 10th Portuguese India Armada (Aguiar)
1509 – 11th Portuguese India Armada (Coutinho)
1510 – 12th Portuguese India Armada (Mendes)
1511 – 13th Portuguese India Armada (Noronha)

[corsair91]

Armada de Barlovento

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armada_de_Barlovento

The Armada de Barlovento (Windward Fleet) was a military formation that consisted of 50 ships created by the Spanish Empire to protect its overseas American territories from attacks from its European enemies, as well as attacks from pirates and privateers.

Intended to counter the English and French corsairs who preyed on the Spanish treasure fleet.

[corsair91]

Shipwrecks of the Caribbean: Spain drafts treasure map of its own days of empire

https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2019/03/01/inenglish/1551436896_082581.html

The Culture Ministry has charted the 681 vessels sunk between 1492 and 1898, including the Santa María, the largest of Christopher Columbus’s three ships on his first voyage across the Atlantic


Vicente G. Olaya
Madrid - 11 mar 2019

See link for further Info


Most of the wrecks can be found off Cuba (249), followed by the US Atlantic (153), an area famous for its pirate islands, and Spanish Florida (150), an area that stretched throughout what is now the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia and Alabama. Panama, for example, has 66 wrecks and the Caribbean island of Hispaniola has 63.

91.2% of the vessels that went down were struck by bad weather and only 1.4% were sunk on account of conflict – 0.8% as a result of run-ins with pirates.

The stuff about pirates is little more than myth,
The Spanish ships were fearsome and armed to the teeth and would be carrying dozens of cannon. They would have scared off the pirates rather than the other way around.


https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/mar/01/spain-logs-shipwrecks-maritime-past-weather-pirates

[corsair91]

Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1657)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Santa_Cruz_de_Tenerife_(1657)

https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Santa-Cruz-de-Tenerife


An English fleet under Admiral Robert Blake penetrated the heavily defended harbour at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Spanish Canary Islands and attacked the Spanish treasure fleet.

The Spanish treasure from Mexico had already been unloaded and secured ashore.

[corsair91]

Price revolution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_revolution

The Price Revolution, sometimes known as the Spanish Price Revolution, was a series of economic events that occurred between the second half of the 15th century and the first half of the 17th century, and most specifically linked to the high rate of inflation that occurred during this period across Western Europe. Prices rose on average roughly sixfold over 150 years. This level of inflation amounts to 1–1.5% per year, a relatively low inflation rate for modern-day standards, but rather high given the monetary policy in place in the 16th century.

Generally it is thought that this high inflation was caused by the large influx of gold and silver from the Spanish treasure fleet from the New World, including Mexico, Peru, and the rest of the Spanish Empire.

Specie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_money

flowed through Spain, increasing Spanish prices, and then spread over Western Europe as a result of Spanish balance of payments deficit. This enlarged the monetary supply and price levels of many European countries. Combined with this influx of gold and silver, population growth and urbanization perpetuated the price revolution. According to this theory, too many people with too much money chased too few goods

[corsair91]

List of shipwrecks of Florida
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shipwrecks_of_Florida



Numismatic History: The Loss of the 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet
https://coinweek.com/coins/treasure-2/numismatic-history-the-loss-of-the-1715-spanish-treasure-fleet/

[corsair91]

The Spanish Treasure Fleet
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/europe/es-navy-treasure-fleet.htm


Much of Spain's exploration of the Americas centered on the desire to find gold and silver. These precious metals were valuable because they were used to make coins, which were the basis of most of Europe's monetary systems. Before the arrival of American treasure in the six-teenth century, European trade was fed primarily bygold from the Sudan. But Portuguese expeditions along the Atlantic coast of Africa to the Gulf of Guinea between 1460 and 1470, and the establishment of direct trade relations between Portugal and the East Indies at the beginning of the sixteenth century, diverted the route of Sudanese gold away fromthe Mediterranean and caused a great scarcity of gold in Europe. This was supplied in part by the German silver mines, which enjoyed a period of relative prosperity between 1470 and 1530, coinciding with the shortage of precious metals. From 1530, however, this shortage was unexpectedly eased when American treasure began to replace the old sources of supply and gave Europe an immense stock of money, the origin of grave alteration in prices, especially in Spain, the country where the treasure arrived and from which it was distributed.

The influx of treasure consisted almost entirely of silver. The basic Spanish silver coin was the 8-reales piece or "piece of eight", which came to be called a peso. Because of its high silver content, pesos were widely accepted in Europe. This was important because Spain had virtually no industry of its own and had to buy manufactured goods from other European nations. In this way, the silver and gold Spain mined in the Americas made its way throughout Europe and impacted the global economy. The colonies that Spain founded in the New World became the world's largest sources of precious metals. Spain quickly established a policy whereby colonists in the Americas could only trade with Spanish merchant ships. Since early colonists depended on Spanish merchants for basic necessities including food, tools, domestic animals, and weapons, Spain's trading monopoly was very profitable.

Spain's New World monopoly became a source of tension with other European countries. The French viewed the treasure as an irresistible target and began attacking Spain's ships as they made their way into Spanish ports. These attacks were conducted by privateers, private ships that were licensed by the French government to try to seize Spanish ships. If successful, the privateer kept a portion of the seized treasure, and the French government took the rest. Using this system, France (and eventually England) was able to covertly claim some of the New World treasure without openly attacking Spain. To minimize these threats, Spain organized a defense for its merchant ships. In 1522, the government sent a fleet of warships into the Atlantic Ocean to escort the returning merchant ships into port. The government paid for the escort by requiring merchants to pay a tax on the goods being protected.

In the 1530s, Spain conquered the Inca Empire in present day Peru and added huge amounts of gold and silver to its coffers. Not surprisingly, France expanded efforts to seize Spanish treasure by licensing privateers to operate far into the Atlantic Ocean instead of concentrating on waters near Spain. In 1537, a year when French privateers captured nine treasure ships, Spain sent several royal warships all the way to the Caribbean to escort the treasure ships home. This convoy of merchant ships and warships is considered the first true treasure fleet. This system of merchant ships sailing in groups protected by warships helped the Spanish bring home large amounts of treasure. In 1545 the Spanish found the richest silver deposits yet discovered in the Americas on a mountainside in Peru. This find ensured the growth of the Spanish empire and made silver the most important precious metal coming from the Americas.

As New World trade continued to increase in the early 1550s, Spain struggled to find ships that not only could carry large quantities of cargo and sail well, but also could defend against attacks. The galleon, perfected during this period, soon became the standard ship used in the treasure fleets. An average galleon was about 100 feet long and 30 feet wide. It had three or four masts, two or three decks, and two to three dozen cannon. While galleons could carry large amounts of cargo and weapons, they were top-heavy and hard to maneuver. Merchant ships called naos, which were basically unarmed galleons, made up the bulk of the fleet and carried cargo, treasure, and passengers. Other ships traveling in the fleets included pataches, which were smaller vessels used to communicate between ships, and resfuerzos or supply ships that carried food and regular cargo.

By the 1560s, the treasure fleet system was well established and centered on two fleets - the Tierra Firme and the New Spain - sailing to the New World each year. Some years the two fleets left Spain as one large convoy and others they left separately. They followed the same course to the Caribbean, but while the Tierra Firme fleet proceeded to South America, the New Spain fleet went on to Mexico. After rejoining in Havana, the combined convoy sailed back to Spain.

Each fleet consisted of at least two heavily-armed galleons and two pataches as well as between 10 and 90 merchant naos. The largest galleon, the Capitana, carried the captain-general who was first in command of the fleet. The smaller galleon, the Almiranta, carried the admiral who was second in command. Because these ships were the most heavily armed, they carried all of the Crown's treasure. During the second half of the 16th century, at least 60 ships traveled in a convoy. Six or more galleons often traveled with the Tierra Firme fleet because it carried the most treasure (from Peru). Because it was more heavily armed, this convoy became known as the galeones (galleons). The New Spain fleet came to be called the flota (fleet).

In the mid 1560s, a third fleet, called the Manila Galleons, began sailing between the Spanish colony of the Philippines and Acapulco on the west coast of New Spain. In the Philippines, exotic Far East products such as spices, porcelains, silks, and ivory were loaded onto ships and taken to Acapulco. Here the goods were transported by pack animals to Veracruz where they would join the New Spain flota's treasure. Although the journey from Manila to Acapulco took from four to eight months and was considered the most difficult navigation in the world, the financial gain outweighed the risks.

By the 1570s, about five million pesos' worth of precious metals made the trip to Spain each year. Silver accounted for at least 95% of the total by weight. By the end of the 16th century, colonists were demanding more manufactured goods such as textiles, weapons, glass, and paper. Since Spain did not produce these goods in large quantities, merchants had to buy more and more foreign products to send to the Spanish colonies. This, in turn, made Spain more dependent on treasure from the Americas.

The treasure fleet system reached it height between 1590 and 1600. During this period, about 16 million pesos' worth of precious metals came from the New World mines each year. Then, over the next century the system began to slowly decline. Disputes over religion, territory, and trade caused Spain to fight various wars against the English, Dutch, and French for much of the 17th century. The treasure fleets were always a major target for Spain's enemies. The huge financial strain of wars and shortages of goods and ships made it hard to maintain the annual schedule. As Spain's debts increased, colonial mines began producing less silver and gold, attacks on ships increased, and other European nations began to colonize the Caribbean. At home, Spain's economy was declining, as was its shipbuilding industry. By the mid 17th century, more than two thirds of its ships were built in foreign countries. Also by this time, the average number of ships in a fleet had fallen to 25.

After 1700 there was little improvement in the treasure fleet system. A major reason for this was that Spanish colonists began buying goods from English, Dutch, and French merchants at cheaper prices. Accordingly, the demand for goods from the Spanish treasure ships decreased, and Spain's trading monopoly weakened. War with the Dutch and English in the early 18th century created a huge strain as did another war with the English in the 1730s. During these periods, small fleets sailed sporadically at best and sometimes not at all. The loss of the 1715 and 1733 fleets to hurricanes took a toll as well. In the 1760s and 70s only six flotas sailed to Veracruz. The treasure fleet system finally ended completely in 1778 when the Spanish Crown declared free trade all over her American colonies. After that, individual ships traveled back and forth to the Americas, but regulated convoys ceased to exist.

Although Spain's dominance of the Americas ultimately came to an end, it left a lasting legacy. From the 16th to the 18th century, Spanish mines in Mexico and South America produced more than 4 billion pesos' worth of precious metals. This equaled roughly 80 percent of the world's silver production and 70 percent of gold at a time when these precious metals were the most widely accepted international currency. The wealth generated by New World trade spread throughout Europe, ultimately shaping the world economy and fostering the European settlement of the Americas.

[corsair91]

Thirst for Treasure: Privateer Navies of the New World

English, French and Dutch pirates preyed on Spanish wealth in the New World for nearly 150 years.

By Steven. M. Johnson

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2018/12/14/thirst-for-treasure/



Piracy in the Caribbean
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_in_the_Caribbean

[corsair91]

Florida 1733 Spanish Plate Fleet Shipwrecks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_1733_Spanish_Plate_Fleet_Shipwrecks



El Infante - 1733 Spanish Treasure Fleet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6jGtLzpg2I

Diving footage

[corsair91]

The Fleet of 1733

http://info.flheritage.com/galleon-trail/fleetOf1733.cfm

On Friday, the thirteenth of July 1733, the New Spain Fleet left Havana harbor on its return voyage to Spain. Commanded by Lieutenant-General Rodrigo de Torres aboard the 60-gun navio, El Rubi, the flota consisted of three other armed navios, sixteen merchant naos, and two smaller ships carrying supplies to the Presidio of St. Augustine. The following day, after the vessels sighted the Florida Keys, the wind shifted abruptly from the east and increased in velocity. Lieutenant-General Torres, sensing an approaching hurricane, ordered his captains to turn back to Havana and to sail as close to the wind as possible, but it was too late. By nightfall of the fifteenth, all or most of the ships had been driven westward and scattered, sunk, or swamped along eighty miles of the Florida Keys. Four ships made it safely back to Havana. Another vessel, the galleon El Africa, managed to sail on to Spain undamaged.

Survivors gathered in small groups throughout the low islands and built crude shelters from debris that had washed ashore. Spanish admiralty officials in Havana, worried about the fate of the fleet, sent a small sloop to search for wrecks. Before the sloop could return, another boat arrived in the harbor and reported seeing many large ships grounded near a place called "Head of the Martyrs." Immediately, nine rescue vessels loaded with supplies, food, divers, and salvage equipment sailed for the scene of the disaster. Soldiers were on board to protect the shore camps and the recovered cargo.

Vessels that could not be refloated and towed back to Havana were burned to the waterline, enabling divers to descend into the cargo holds, and also concealing the wrecks from freebooters. The work continued for years, with the salvors working under the watchful scrutiny of guardships. The location of each shipwreck was charted on several maps. When a final calculation of salvaged materials was made, more gold and silver was recovered than had been listed on the original manifests, the tell-tale evidence of contraband aboard the homeward-bound vessels.

In the 1960s, most of the wrecks associated with the 1733 fleet were relocated by modern divers. Although many documents relating to the Spanish salvage operations have been consulted, confusion still exists about the identities of some of the wrecks, since names and locations differ depending on the documents examined. Compared to the 1715 Spanish plate fleet that wrecked on the east coast of Florida, very little “treasure” has been discovered on the 1733 wrecks, a testimony to the successful salvage activities of the Spaniards. Unfortunately, some of the historical and archaeological value of these sites has suffered from insufficient recordkeeping on the part of modern salvors. However, beginning in 1968 the State of Florida initiated a salvage contract program overseen by State appointed agents with archaeological oversight. The 1733 sites represent some of the oldest artificial reefs in North America, supporting complex ecosystems of marine life that have thrived generation after generation over the centuries. The real “treasure” of the 1733 fleet is the opportunity to visit the living remains of ships from an era long gone.



Plate Fleets
http://info.flheritage.com/galleon-trail/plateFleets.cfm

[corsair91]

The Spanish Treasure Fleets of 1715 and 1733: Disasters Strike at Sea
https://www.nps.gov/teachers/classrooms/129shipwrecks.htm



Birth of the Spanish treasure fleets
https://www.flkeysnews.com/living/article79612117.html



Spanish treasure fleet
https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Spanish_treasure_fleet



History of the Spanish Plate Fleets

http://floridahistoryin3d.com/history.html

The Spanish Plate Fleets lost off of the coast of Florida have long evoked awe and fascination. Named the “Plate Fleets” for the plata (silver) coins they carried, the remains of these fleets weave an archaeological tale of international trade, colonialism, piracy, high seas adventure, and tragedy. Beyond the gold and silver that was scattered on the sea floor, the wrecks of the Plate Fleets provide insight into the economy of the Spanish empire and maritime culture of the 18th century.

The vast amount of natural resources discovered in the New World funded Spain’s rise as a world power. Spanish shipments of silver, gold, gems, spices, and other exotic goods soon became prey for pirates. To counter this threat and to protect its merchant vessels from predators, Spain developed a formal convoy system as early as 1537. At least two armed escorts, a flagship (capitana) sailing at the front of the fleet and a vice-flagship (almiranta) in the rear, accompanied the heavily-laden ships across the Atlantic. Additional armed galleons often protected larger fleets.

Each year, two separate fleets left Spain loaded with European goods that were in great demand in the Spanish-American colonies. Sailing together down the coast of Africa, the fleets stopped at the Canary Islands for provisions before the long voyage across the Atlantic. Once they reached the Caribbean, the two fleets separated. The New Spain fleet, or flota, sailed to Veracruz in Mexico to take on silver and other goods, such as porcelain shipped from China and brought overland from Acapulco, Mexico, by mule train. The Tierra Firme fleet, or galeones, traveled to Cartagena, Columbia, to take on South American products. Some ships were sent to Portobelo in Panama to pick up Peruvian silver, while others went to the island of Margarita to collect pearls harvested from offshore oyster beds. Other New World products included indigo and cochineal dyes, exotic woods, ceramics, leather goods, chocolate, vanilla, sassafras, tobacco, and products made by the native peoples of the Americas. Once loading was completed, both fleets sailed for Havana, Cuba to rendezvous for the journey back to Spain.

The fleet faced many dangers as it made its way back to Spain. The ships traveled through poorly-mapped reefs that could easily sink them. The slow moving, heavily-laden galleons were also prime targets for pirates during the “golden age of piracy.” One of the greatest fears was tropical storms and hurricanes. With no way to forecast the storms or to predict their tracks, ships were completely at the mercy of wind and waves.

Under the fleet system, which lasted until nearly 1800, Spain successfully transported enormous amounts of goods between Europe and the New World. Some ships inevitably wrecked along the way, and the Spanish developed effective salvage capabilities to recover the valuable cargoes. Major fleet disasters occurred in 1622, 1715, and 1733. The remains of these ships now provide us with exceptional opportunities to study this part of our maritime history. Starting in the 20th century, people began recovering artifacts from these ships off of the coast of Florida using diving gear and drag lines. Many items of historical significance found in State waters are curated by the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research and made available to researchers and museums to further our knowledge of this pivotal time in the history of the Americas.