(Tuesday Talk - on a Friday :-)
On 24th
July 1715 twelve heavily laden galleons set sail from the New World (Mexico) heading
home to Spain after many months of delay. They never made it.
The Flota de Nueva España (the New Spanish
Fleet) had initially sailed to Veracruz in Mexico carrying mercury which was an
essential substance for refining silver cobs. The intention was to return to
Spain, rendezvousing in Havana, Cuba, with a second fleet, the Esquadron de Terra Firme which sailed from
Spain to South America and back again. The returning ships would be carrying
Peruvian and Colombian treasure from Panama and Cartagena. The entire fleet was
a floating treasure chest of magnificent proportion: chests of silver and gold
coin, gold bars, gold dust, jewellery, tobacco, spices, indigo and cochineal as
well as emeralds, pearls and Chinese porcelain. It is possible that the combined
value of the registered cargo (not including any contraband that was also more
than likely to have been aboard) nears something like a modern equivalent of
about £1,500,000,000.
The Squadron of Tierra Firma was under the command of
Captain-General Don Antonio de Escheverz y Zubiza, and the New Spain Fleet by Captain-General
Don Juan Esteban de Ubilla. The flagships were both called Capitana, one being a captured English ship formerly named the Hampton Court. Other known ships (although
some names have been disputed) were the Almiranta,
the Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion, Urca
de Lima, San Miguel, the El Ciervo,
the Refuerzo. and a smaller merchant
vessel. Sailing with them, a French ship Griffon,
under the command of Captain Antoine Dar.
All of them were overloaded,
top-heavy, and clumsy – and had delayed too long. More delays occurred in
Havana, and the convoy of twelve ships did not weigh anchor until well into the
known hurricane season. The route was the usual tried and tested one up the
Bahama Channel: follow the Florida coast making use of the Gulf Stream, which eventually
veers across the Atlantic not far from where the fleet was lost.
Seven days after
departing from Havana in the evening of July 30th, a hurricane blew
in, wrecking the fleet along the Florida coast, with the single exception of
the Griffon which sailed on
unscathed. Over one thousand people lost their lives, including Ubilla and his
officers.
Some of the ships
sank in deep water, some broke up in the shallows. The more fortunate ran
aground close to the beach. About 1,500 reached the safety of shore by swimming
or floating on wreckage. The survivors improvised makeshift camps while a party
was dispatched to fetch aid from St. Augustine, but many of those who had
scrabbled ashore succumbed to exposure, thirst, shock and hunger before help
could arrive. When the terrible news reached Havana, salvage ships were
dispatched. Probably not for the immediate benefit of those wretched survivors,
but out of concern for the lost cargo.
The first task was
to initiate a salvage operation. Much of the treasure was recovered from the
holds of the ships which had run aground in the shallows. The salvage
encampment grew and a storehouse was erected among the dunes behind the beach bordering
unexplored jungle.
Various wars and
skirmish between Spain, Holland, France and England – in different combinations
with different allies and enemies – had ground to a halt. In the Caribbean,
Port Royal, Tortuga and Nassau, and along the North American coast of the
Colonies, men sat idle, with no money to spend in the brothels and taverns,
with nothing to do. In the harbours, ships lay at anchor slowly rotting.
Word spread
of the disaster off the Florida coast, and many of those bored men suddenly had
the same idea: get a boat, get rich quick. Like moths to a flame they surged to
the shallows in the hope of picking up a fortune – literally.
And then, in 1716,
Henry Jennings appeared on the scene.
Captain Jennings (died circa 1745) first appeared as a privateer based
in Jamaica,
during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714),
a major European conflict which had been triggered by the death of childless
Charles II, the last Habsburg King of Spain.
He figured that scrabbling around in the shallows, risking sharks or drowning,
was a silly game. He had the better idea of letting the Spanish do the work,
then taking between one-hundred-and-fifty to three-hundred men to raid the warehouse
at the salvage camp. He returned to Jamaica carrying an estimated 350,000 pesos (a lot of money!) En
route he attacked another Spanish ship, amassing more loot, and met up with "Black
Sam" Bellamy, committing more acts of piracy together against French
ships.
Jennings was declared a pirate and fled to New
Providence in the Bahamas.
In Nassau he became the unofficial mayor of
the expanding pirate colony, taking the King’s amnesty declared by the newly
appointed Governor of the Bahamas, Woodes Rogers,
and eventually retired to Bermuda as a wealthy plantation owner.
It is the sinking
of the Spanish Fleet and Jennings’ daring-do along the Florida coast that
inspired my initial idea for Sea Witch.
‘What if’ I thought, ‘it wasn’t Henry Jennings’ idea to raid that
warehouse? What if my pirate, Jesamiah Acorne was the brain behind the scheme?’
The idea took flight and became a central part of the first Sea Witch Voyage. You can read an excerpt here:
As for the treasure
ships, the Spanish continued salvaging what they could until 1719, then gave
up. It is possible that around £300,000,000 still remains on the sea floor, the
occasional haul being found by professional marine archaeologists and
treasure-hunter, or by lucky holiday-makers.
images: Stock Images via courtesy Cathy Helms www.avalongraphics.org
