Spanish treasure fleet

[corsair91]

Spanish treasure fleet 1702

The 1702 treasure fleet was destroyed in the Battle of Vigo Bay during the War of the Spanish Succession, when the fleet was surprised at port unloading its goods, but the Spanish sailors had already unloaded most of its cargo


https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vigo_Bay

https://military.wikia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Spanish_Succession

[corsair91]

Nuestra Señora de Atocha
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuestra_Se%C3%B1ora_de_Atocha

Nuestra Señora de Atocha (Spanish: Our Lady of Atocha) was a Spanish treasure galleon and the most widely known vessel of a fleet of ships that sank in a hurricane off the Florida Keys in 1622



https://assassinscreed.fandom.com/wiki/Spanish_Treasure_Fleet

Several fleets in 1622, 1715, 1733, and 1750 were all decimated by hurricanes

[corsair91]

Spanish Treasure Fleet 1750


The Price of Amity: Of Wrecking, Piracy, and the TragicLoss of the 1750 Spanish Treasure Fleet

https://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol18/tnm_18_3-4_25-48.pdf



North Carolina Shipwrecks
http://northcarolinashipwrecks.blogspot.com/2012/05/dangerous-shoals.html

The Spanish Galleons ~ 18 August 1750


https://www.greensboro.com/searchers-gold-mine-may-be-under-water-a-shipwreck-found-off-the-north-carolina-coast/article_af1a7bbf-c8a6-561e-9d72-4f0396d462d7.html




Shipwrecks and Treasure: the Spanish Treasure Fleet of 1750
https://knoji.com/article/shipwrecks-and-treasure-the-spanish-treasure-fleet-of-1750/

In 1750 a small fleet of Spanish galleons and merchant vessels left Havana bound for Cadiz laden with treasure. However, before the fleet could catch the Atlantic trade winds for home it was hit by a hurricane which scattered and decimated the fleet


Since 1566 Spain had been successfully exploiting the indigenous people and taking advantage of the treasures to be found in New Spain ( Mexico) and the Spanish Main in South America. Spain had developed a sophisticated fleet system which combined three separate fleet convoys sailing from Vera Cruz, Panamá and Cartagena laden with goods and treasure from the Americas and Spain’s colony in the Philippines. The combined fleets joined forces in Havana, Cuba, where they took on supplies before returning to the port of Cádiz, Spain, via the Azores.

However, in 1739 Europe became engulfed in a war known as the War of Austrian Succession (or in the Americas, King George’s War). Great Britain declared war against Spain and attacked Spanish interests in the Americas with a degree of success. Privateers were sanctioned by the British to attack and plunder the Spanish Main, and Spanish galleons, for the valuable treasures. The war lasted until 1748 with the signing of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. It was costly and exhausting for all sides, indeed, for Spain it marked the beginning of the end for the treasure fleets and Spain’s supremacy as a naval power.

The treasure fleet of 1750 was a far cry from that of previous years which often numbered as many as one hundred ships. Just seven vessels were docked at Havana harbor awaiting the return journey to Spain. They made the transatlantic crossing in August, late into hurricane season. It was thought that this would help deter pirates, although the strategy carried obvious risk.

The commander of the fleet was General Manuel de Bonilla aboard the Dutch-built, flagship Nuestra Señora de Guadeloupe. Aside from the ships usual cargo of goods such as cotton, spices, copper, hides and indigo. The heavily armed galleon carried over 400,000 ocho reale silver coins ( pieces of eight) minted in Bogota and Mexico with a value of 613,000 Mexican pesos. Locked up in the Guadeloupe's hull, and one other galleon, were 50 Dutch, English and French prisoners accused of smuggling in Spanish territorial waters. Passengers aboard the galleon included the viceroy of Mexico and the governor of Havana with his family.

The second most important ship in the convoy was the 50-gun frigate, La Galga. Its cargo included luxury items such as tobacco, cigars, snuff and silk. There was also gold bars, silver, diamonds and emeralds. Other ships in the fleet were the Portuguese registered vessel the San Pedro; La Merced, Los Godos, El Salvador and the frigate La Soledad to protect the convoys rear from attack.

After the fleet left Havana it crossed the Florida straits and navigated the treacherous reefs of the Florida Keys in fine weather and without problem. However, before the fleet reached the latitude of 33° north a hurricane or tropical storm descended upon the fleet, separating the vessels and pushing them toward the leeward shore. As the storm, which lasted for one week, intensified, one by one the fleet foundered upon the treacherous shoals of North Carolina’s Outer Banks and further north. The ships crews tried desperately to salvage the valuable cargos, some with more success than others.

The Guadeloupe had run aground on Ocracoke Bar. General Bonilla was aware that the fleet had foundered in enemy territory and although Britain and Spain were at peace by then there was still hostility between the two sides. The general also knew that British pirates would love to get their hands on Spanish royal treasure. Bonilla also had to deal with a mutiny. A group of the ships crew led by the boatswain’s mate feared that because the Guadeloupe had not completed its journey they would not get paid. So they demanded to be paid before they would continue the salvage operation from the sinking ship. Bonilla refused to pay the crew from the ships treasure as he did not have the authority or permission from the Spanish crown. However, Bonilla managed to curtail the mutiny and regain control of the situation. Bonilla realized he had no choice but send word to the governor of North Carolina, Gabriel Johnson and ask for assistance. Whilst Bonilla and his crew were awaiting help, two English sloops the Seaflower and the Mary approached and offered assistance. Bonilla was weary of the two former privateer vessels but believed it was an opportunity to avoid dealing with Governor Johnson.

So General Bonilla and the captains of the sloops came to an arrangement. The galleon’s treasure was to be loaded aboard the two sloops. The crew of the Guadeloupe and its fifty prisoners would then join the sloops and head for Virginia where General Bonilla would purchase another vessel for his crew and cargo, then sail for Cadiz. However, as the sailors were transferring the treasure, the captain’s of the Seaflower and Mary seized the opportunety, cut their anchor lines and ran for the open ocean, headed for the West Indies. They had captured from the Spanish 55 chests of silver reale coins, plus gold bars and other cargo.

When Governor Johnson got word of the entire incident he immediately sent HMS Scorpion to Ocracoke Bar where the Royal Navy sloop-of-war rescued the Spanish crew and loaded the remaining treasure from the Guadeloupe. He also sent two frigates of the West Indies squadron to search for the pirate sloops.

[corsair91]

Captain Don Daniel Huony the Spanish Hornblower

https://thehiddengalleon.com/
https://thehiddengalleon.com/captain-don-daniel-huony-the-spanish-hornblower/

Daniel Huony, captain of the legendary Assateague galleon, was born about 1683 in Tullamore, Clarke County, Ireland. In 1713, he served in British Navy aboard HMS Success serving as an A.B., then coxswain, and then a midshipman. His life at sea reads like that of Horatio Hornblower but his real adventures began when he left the British Navy and joined the Spanish Navy on August 25, 1714, as piloto principal. His voluntary transition was due to the intolerance of Catholics in England at the time, and being Catholic, he was welcomed by Spain. On January 8, 1715, he was promoted to Alférez de Navío (lieutenant). Two years later he was made captain. In 1719, Huony was at the Battle of Sicily where he was captured and ended up in a hospital which he said later “cost him his youth.” The following year, he made his first trip across the Atlantic and returned to Cádiz with General Baltasar de Guevara and his a treasure fleet in September of 1720. In 1727, Huony sailed to the Indies and with General Lopez Pintado returned to Spain in 1729. Huony transferred to La Potencia and sailed to the West Indies with the Marqués de Mary in 1730. After a successful voyage, he assumed command of El Fuerte as captain in February of 1731. The Irishman survived shipwreck in 1732 in the Bay of Mustagen off the Algerian coast. But his luck continued, for in the following year, in command of the 60 gun El Africa in the treasure Fleet of Admiral Rodrigo Torres, he was the only ship to survive the hurricane that sank the fleet in the Florida Keys. He would later convey salvaged treasure back to Spain. These ships have been salvaged by treasure hunters in modern times.

In 1737, Daniel Huony was commander of two warships, León, 70 guns and the 62 gun Lanfranco which conveyed a cargo of mercury to Veracruz, Mexico, for the silver mines. The ships arrived in 1738. La Franco and the 58 gun, Incendio, were loaded with treasure and placed under the command of Huony in 1739. His ships were hit by a storm at Veracruz which ran the Incendio ashore. The treasure was saved and Captain Huony’s life was spared again.

In 1739, war broke out between England and Spain and the following year Huony was given command of the 70 gun, San Felipe, on August 28, 1740. During the Battle of Cartagena in April of 1741, Huony was wounded and was later given the title Commander of the Galleons and returned to Spain in the San Felipe.

Huony returned to the Caribbean and was put in charge of El Fuerte in the squadron of General Andrés de Reggio patrolling off the coasts of Cuba. In 1746 he captured the English merchant ship, Harrington, off of Jamaica. The Harrington was later sold to Don Pedro Pumarejo and was renamed the Nuestra Señora de Los Godos and was the richest ship to sail in the 1750 fleet. In April 1749, Huony, on the Fuerte, set sail for Veracruz with the official title of General of the New Spain Fleet. Here, the ships loaded with treasure for their return to Havana. Huony escorted the 56 gun, La Galga, under command of Captain Fernando de Varela. When the ships arrived at Havana they found that La Galga was leaking. This was of little surprise because it had been decided to sell La Galga in Havana after her voyage from Spain in 1748 because of her constant need of repairs. There were no takers in Havana so she was retained by the navy.

Huony had been under the impression that he would be returning to Spain in the Dragon, a warship in the treasure fleet of General Antonio Benito Epinola. The Irishman lost out because of his poor relationship with the general. To his dismay, Varela was given command of the Dragon and Huony was given command of La Galga. Unfortunately, repairs to La Galga kept Huony from sailing with the other ships in the treasure fleet back to Spain. He would not depart Havana until August 18, 1750. It would become the most historic voyage of his career.

On September 5, 1750, La Galga drove ashore on Assateague Island, Virginia. He would later write that he “wonderfully escaped with his life much bruised and maltreated.” His ship would become the legendary galleon made famous in Misty of Chincoteague.

Huony returned to Spain in March of 1751. The following year on May 29, he took command of Princesa and Galicia, both of seventy-four guns. His first mission was to escort two merchant vessels en route to the Indies out beyond St. Vincent, Portugal.

On May 30, 1755, he was promoted to Jefe de Escuadra as commander of the navy yard at Ferrol.

On July 13, 1760, he was promoted to admiral as second in command of the Spanish Navy.

On June 14, 1771, Don Daniel Huony died and then buried at Isla de León, Cádiz. He never married so he left everything to his nephew George Lysacht. In 2009, Liam Begly of County Clare Ireland, a direct descendant of George Lysacht, contacted John Amrhein, Jr., the author of The Hidden Galleon, and conveyed an article about Daniel Huony published in Ireland. In the article was a picture of a chalice that Daniel had given to his brother, Walter, a parish priest in Ireland in 1756.

Admiral Huony died without knowing that when he lost his ship at Assateague Island he would leave behind a legend that would inspire millions of people centuries later.

The inscription reads: The illustrious man, Mr. Daniel O’Huony, who recently held the post of Governor of Ferrol under the Catholic King, and who also several times commanded certain ships of the same, gave this chalice to his native parish of Kilaspuglenane in the year 1756.

The only known remnant of the historic 1750 fleet is Captain Huony’s ship buried on Assateague Island.

[corsair91]

https://www.treasureislandtheuntoldstory.com/


Where is Treasure Island?

That question has been asked ever since Robert Louis Stevenson published his Treasure Island book in 1883. The answer to that question has now been discovered by Outer Banks NC author, John Amrhein, Jr.

In 1750, fifty-five chests of silver pieces of eight were stolen from a Spanish galleon at Ocracoke, North Carolina, and carried to the West Indies where most of it was buried on Norman Island, a deserted key in the British Virgin Islands.

Robert Louis Stevenson published a fictional tale of adventure about an expedition to an unnamed Caribbean island to recover a treasure that had been buried there in 1750. The map that was in Stevenson’s Treasure Island book was drawn by him and his father and is probably the most famous treasure map in the world. In the story, the map was discovered in a dead pirate’s sea chest by a young teenager named Jim Hawkins. Guided by the map, Stevenson’s remarkable cast of characters sails the Hispaniola to the Caribbean in the hopes of recovering the treasure. Who hasn’t heard of Long John Silver? He is more famous than the author himself.


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

[corsair91]

New History Blog Reveals Clues to a Lost Spanish Treasure on the Outer Banks

https://www.prlog.org/11990129-new-history-blog-reveals-clues-to-lost-spanish-treasure-on-the-outer-banks.html

After thirty years of fruitless searches by treasure hunters, clues to the location of the elusive gold of the 1750 Spanish ship, El Salvador, wrecked at Cape Lookout, NC, is revealed in the new blog of maritime historian and author, John Amrhein, Jr


Oct. 3, 2012 - PRLog -- Kitty Hawk, NC -- On August 29, 1750, hurricane winds drove a Spanish treasure fleet of seven ships up the coast of America. Because of damaged rigging and the north bound current of the Gulf Stream, the ships were rendered out of control as Mother Nature delivered them to the coast of North Carolina and Virginia. Two of the ships made it safely into Chesapeake Bay; two others were wrecked on the Eastern Shore, one as far north as the Maryland- Virginia boundary on Assateague Island. At Ocracoke, the treasure galleon, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, came safely to anchor. A merchant ship called Nuestra Señora de Soledad was lost at Drum Inlet south of Ocracoke. All of her treasure was saved. Lastly, El Salvador, was dashed upon the sand banks of Cape Lookout , splitting open the ship, drowning all but four, and spilling her cargo which included sixteen chests of silver pieces of eight and four chests of gold. News of the disaster travelled quickly. Treasure fever swept the mid-Atlantic colonies. Never before had a Spanish treasure fleet been lost this far north. After mostly futile salvage attempts, the shipwrecks were forgotten in due course until the 1970s when modern technology and archival research gave birth to discoveries of numerous Spanish treasure ships in Florida and the Caribbean. News of these discoveries drove modern adventurers to seek the abandoned treasures of the 1750 fleet. Outer Banks author, John Amrhein, Jr., was one of them.

In 1983, he discovered the Spanish warship, La Galga, buried in the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on Assateague Island. Afterwards, he continued his exhaustive research on the 1750 fleet in the archives of Europe and America. In 2007, he wrote the complete history of the La Galga, her discovery, and her historical significance. In 2011, he wrote another book about the 1750 fleet called Treasure Island: The Untold Story which connects the theft of treasure from the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe at Ocracoke Island and buried in the Caribbean with Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. In the end notes of his latest book he documents the fate of El Salvador.

Treasure Hunters and archaeologists have searched for El Salvador for over thirty years with no apparent success. Amrhein lays out his case that everyone may be looking in the wrong place in his new history blog, Yesterday on the Outer Banks. Using the logs of two British warships stationed in Charleston, South Carolina, and Yorktown, Virginia, he recreated the path of the hurricane in order to predict the likely location for El Salvador. Today this treasure would be worth many millions of dollars but Amrhein also documents that the treasure may have been recovered immediately after the ship wrecked.
“The treasure of the 1750 Fleet is not gold and silver” says Amrhein, “but the incredible stories that were left behind.”

[corsair91]

The Manila Galleons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_galleon

Spanish trading ships which for two and a half centuries linked the Philippines with Mexico across the Pacific Ocean, making one or two round-trip voyages per year between the ports of Acapulco and Manila, which were both part of New Spain. The name of the galleon changed to reflect the city that the ship sailed from.
The term Manila Galleons is also used to refer to the trade route itself between Acapulco and Manila, which lasted from 1565 to 1815.

The Manila Galleons were also (inaccurately) known in New Spain as La Nao de la China ("The China Ships") on their return voyage from the Philippines because they carried mostly Chinese goods, shipped from Manila. China would only accept silver as payment for goods.

The Manila galleons sailed the Pacific for 250 years, their route taking them south of the Hawaiian Islands.
Bringing to the Americas cargoes of luxury goods such as spices and porcelain, in exchange for silver. The route also created a cultural exchange that shaped the identities and culture of the countries involved.

It took at least four months to sail across the Pacific Ocean from Manila to Acapulco, and the galleons were the main link between the Philippines and the viceregal capital at Mexico City and thence to Spain itself.

The westward route from Mexico passed south of Hawaii, making a short stopover in Guam before heading for Manila. The exact route was kept secret to protect the Spanish trade monopoly against competing powers, and to avoid Dutch and English pirates.


The wrecks of the Manila galleons are legends second only to the wrecks of treasure ships in the Caribbean.
In 1568, Miguel López de Legazpi's own ship, the San Pablo (300 tons), was the first Manila galleon to be wrecked en route to Mexico.
Between the years 1576 when the Espiritu Santo was lost and 1798 when the San Cristobal was lost there were twenty Manila galleons wrecked within the Philippine archipelago.

At least one galleon, probably the Santo Cristo de Burgos, is believed to have wrecked on the coast of Oregon in 1693. Known as the Beeswax wreck,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeswax_wreck

the event is described in the oral histories of the Tillamook and Clatsop native tribes, which suggest that some of the crew survived.

Between 1565 and 1815 Spain owned 108 galleons, of which 26 were lost at sea for various reasons.


Significant galleon captures by the British occurred in:

1587 when the Santa Anna was captured by Thomas Cavendish
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cavendish

1709 with the Encarnacion captured by Woodes Rogers & William Dampier
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_ship_Nuestra_Se%C3%B1ora_de_la_Encarnaci%C3%B3n_y_Desenga%C3%B1o

Woodes Rogers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodes_Rogers

William Dampier
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Dampier


1743 when the Nuestra Senora de la Covadonga was taken by George Anson
on his voyage around the world
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Anson,_1st_Baron_Anson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Centurion_(1732)


1762 with the Nuestra Senora de la Santisima Trinidad.
captured by Captains Hyde Parker & Richard King

Spanish ship Santísima Trinidad (1751)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_ship_Sant%C3%ADsima_Trinidad_(1751)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Hyde_Parker,_5th_Baronet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Panther_(1758)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Richard_King,_1st_Baronet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Argo_(1758)

Until 1593, four galleons travelled at the same time, later only two.

[corsair91]

Spanish Silver Train
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Silver_Train

The Spanish Silver Train was an improvised trail used to transport silver from Potosí, Peru across the isthmus of Panama in order to ship it to Spain via the Spanish treasure fleet.

The silver was usually unloaded in Panama City, then put in mule trains and taken first to Nombre de Dios, and then, following the demise of that city in the late sixteenth century, to Portobello.

The Silver Train was a prime target for English, Dutch and French privateers in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Francis Drake and Guillaume Le Testu, a French privateer, succeeded in capturing the train.

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

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



Francis Drake’s Raids on Spanish Colonial Ports Netted Tons of Loot
https://www.historynet.com/francis-drakes-raids-on-spanish-colonial-ports-netted-tons-of-loot.htm


More Light on Drake's Mule Train Robbery in Panamá 1573
http://www.indrakeswake.co.uk/Society/Research/muletrain.htm


Pirates (1987) Game Scenario
Francis Drake and the Silver Train Ambush – 1573
(can you match the verve and skill Drake showed battling the Spanish Fleet at the height of their power with only two small ships?)

[corsair91]

Spanish treasure fleet.

The great galleons employed to carry the trade between Cádiz in Spain and Vera Cruz in Mexico were the joint creation of the Marquess of Santa Cruz and Pedro Menéndez de Avilés


Pedro Menéndez de Avilés
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Men%C3%A9ndez_de_Avil%C3%A9s

Spanish admiral and explorer,
remembered for planning the first regular trans-oceanic convoys and for founding St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565.

St. Augustine is the oldest continuously-inhabited, European-established settlement in the continental United States.

Menéndez was the chief planner of the formalized Spanish treasure fleet convoy system that was to be the main link between Spain and her overseas territories.



Álvaro de Bazán, 1st Marquess of Santa Cruz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81lvaro_de_Baz%C3%A1n,_1st_Marquess_of_Santa_Cruz

Spanish admiral. He was never defeated, a remarkable achievement in a fifty-year long career. His personal galley, La Loba (The She-Wolf), thus called by her golden figurehead, was feared by Spanish enemies and regarded with hope amongst Spanish sailors and allies.

Santa Cruz was to have commanded the Spanish Armada against
England but died before this could sail.

[corsair91]

The Rise and Fall of the Spanish Empire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLb43snjYss

Megaprojects
22 Apr 2022
runtime 27:03

Product placement at the start

actual start about 1:42
https://youtu.be/ZLb43snjYss?t=85

[corsair91]

The Hurricane and the 1715 Treasure Fleet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqG7qiBNQ2g

July 31st, 1715 a tragedy more remembered for treasure than people.

The History Guy
https://www.youtube.com/c/TheHistoryGuyChannel

[corsair91]

The Capture of the Spanish Treasure Fleet 1628
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeqN7oQ_QXA

SandRhoman History
Aug 7, 2022
runyime 17:52


SandRhoman History
https://www.youtube.com/@SandRhomanHistory


At dawn of September 7, 1628, the man in the lookout spotted sails on the horizon.
All hands rush on deck, orders sound through the air, the men ready their weapons.
The Spanish treasure fleet is finally within their grasp.

Piet Hein, the greatest privateer of the Netherlands, the sea wolf of the Dutch Republic, had been waiting for these ships for over a month.
The following night he was to celebrate the greatest success of his career.
He was to rob the hated Spanish of one of their most valuable goods: the treasure fleet from the New World.


Admiral Piet Hein
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Pieterszoon_Hein


Witte Corneliszoon de With
flag captain on the Amsterdam to Admiral Piet Hein
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witte_de_With



Moses Cohen Henriques
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Cohen_Henriques

Dutch pirate of Portuguese Sephardic Jewish origin, operating in the Caribbean.

helped Dutch Admiral Piet Hein to capture the Spanish treasure fleet in the battle of the Bay of Matanzas in Cuba, during the Eighty Years' War, in 1628.

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

THe only capture of the Spanish treasure fleet


Pirates (1987) Scenario

Piet Heyn and the Treasure Fleet – 1628
(your fleet is powerful, but the season is late and finding the treasure ships is becoming a difficult task and will take expert planning to locate and dispatch)

[Guardacostas]

Truly an empire that arose from gold and silver from the americas and declined when that same gold and silver was exhausted. They didnt spend it on improving their economy but on religious wars, thinking god would help them so long as they fought the new wave/age heretics

[corsair91]

Probably thought of themselves, in their opinion, as God's Chosen people,
throughout history there has been a lot of that going around, even to the present day.

[Guardacostas]

Indeed and this very rhetoric infuriates those that receive a damnation onto them for being "unchosen"

Anyone deemed unchosen by the chosen, today we call them the pirates of the barbary coast, to keep it pirate themed for our website