Service and sinking
In 1712 Santísima Trinidad (Urca de Lima) belonged to a fleet of eight ships under the command of Juan Esteban de Ubilla, which sailed from Spain to the Americas to fetch goods and much needed bullion. The fleet arrived in Veracruz in December and due to various political and logistical issues it did not leave until the spring of 1715. In January 1715 Lima y Melo was promoted to captain of Santísima Trinidad by Ubilla and the ship got new masts and a hull cleaning. Some of the smaller ships were scrapped for parts to prepare the rest of the fleet for the crossing of the Atlantic. In May of the same year the four remaining ships (Nuestra Señora de la Regla (Capitana), Almiranta, San Cristobal de La Habana, Santísima Trinidad) finally set sail for Havana. After a difficult passage they arrived there at the beginning of July. [4]
After repairs and some additional delay Ubilla's fleet departed from Havana on July 24 to head for Cadiz in Spain. The fleet had been augmented by an additional six Spanish ships under the command of Antonio de Echeverez and the French ship El Grifón tagging along for protection from pirates. The Spanish ships carried various goods from the Americas and from East Asia (via Mexico), a large amount of gold bullion and about 14 million pesos of silver. [4] Urca de Lima, however, did not carry any gold or silver for the Spanish crown but mostly goods such as cowhides, chocolate, sassafras, incense and vanilla. In addition she also carried a few chests of private silver. [2] A few days after leaving Havana the fleet ran into a hurricane that drove the ships towards the Florida coast and ultimately sank or grounded all ships but one. The French El Grifón, which had sailed ahead, escaped without being aware of the fate of the rest of the fleet. More than half of the fleet's 2000 men including Ubilla and Echeverez died in the storm and some of the survivors later died of starvation, injuries and disease. [5] Urca de Lima fared better than the other Spanish ships, as she managed to steer into a river inlet near Fort Pierce, where she grounded on a sandbank but with the hull remaining intact. Due to this most of her cargo and victuals did not get lost and helped to feed the survivors in the days after the storm. [2] [6]
The survivors on the beach were organized by Admiral Francisco Salmón, who later oversaw the salvage operations continuing until April of the following year as well. A few men traveled North in a small boat that was salvaged from the remains of the fleet. Within a week they reached St. Augustine and informed the Spanish authorities about the loss of the 1715 treasure fleet. By the end of August relief ships from Havana arrived at the site of the sunken fleet. After Urca de Lima's cargo was salvaged, she was burned down to the waterline to hide her position from pirates and privateers of other nations, who had become aware of the sunken treasure fleet as well. In December the pirates Henry Jennings and Charles Vane captured a Spanish mail ship and got the exact position of the main Spanish salvage camp and Urca de Lima from her captain, Pedro de la Vega. They surprised the camp with a superior force and Salmón had no choice but to surrender the rest of the salvaged treasure that still remained in the camp. The pirates made off with about £87,500 of gold and silver. [6]
Wrecking is the practice of taking valuables from a shipwreck which has foundered or run aground close to shore. Often an unregulated activity of opportunity in coastal communities, wrecking has been subjected to increasing regulation and evolved into what is now known as marine salvage.
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Lutine was a frigate which served in both the French Navy and the Royal Navy. She was launched by the French in 1779. The ship passed to British control in 1793 and was taken into service as HMS Lutine. She sank among the West Frisian Islands during a storm in 1799.
Nuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad, nicknamed La Real, sometimes confused with the merchant galleon Santísima Trinidad y Nuestra Señora del Buen Fin) was a Spanish first-rate ship of the line and was the largest warship in the world when launched. She originally had 112 guns; this was increased in 1795–96 to 130 guns by closing in the spar deck between the quarterdeck and forecastle, and to 136 guns around 1802, thus creating what was in effect a continuous fourth gundeck although the extra guns added were actually relatively small. She was the heaviest-armed ship in the world when rebuilt, and bore the most guns of any ship of the line outfitted in the Age of Sail.
The maritime history of Florida describes significant past events relating to the U.S. state of Florida in areas concerning shipping, shipwrecks, and military installations and lighthouses constructed to protect or aid navigation and development of the Florida peninsula.
San Pedro Underwater Archaeological Preserve State Park is a Florida State Park located in 18 feet (5.5 m) of water, approximately 1.25 nautical miles (2.32 km) south of Indian Key. It became the second Florida Underwater Archaeological Preserve when it opened to the public in 1989. The heart of the park is the San Pedro, a submerged shipwreck from a 1733 Spanish flotilla, around which visitors can dive and snorkel. The San Pedro, a 287-ton Dutch-built vessel, and 21 other Spanish ships under the command of Rodrigo de Torres left Havana, Cuba, on Friday, July 13, 1733, bound for Spain. The San Pedro carried a cargo of 16,000 silver Mexican pesos and crates of Chinese porcelain. A hurricane struck the fleet, while entering the Straits of Florida, and sank or swamped most of the fleet. The wrecksite includes an "eighteenth century anchor, replica cannons, ballast stones encrusted with coral, a dedication plaque, and a mooring buoy system." The wreck was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on May 31, 2001.
Treasure hunting is the physical search for treasure. For example, treasure hunters try to find sunken shipwrecks and retrieve artifacts with market value. This industry is generally fueled by the market for antiquities.
Charles Vane was an English pirate who operated in the Bahamas during the end of the Golden Age of Piracy.
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The Santa Margarita was a Spanish ship that sank in a hurricane in the Florida Keys about 40 miles (64 km) west of the island of Key West in 1622.
Henry Jennings was an English privateer-turned-pirate. Jennings' first recorded act of piracy took place in early 1716 when, with three vessels and 150–300 men, Jennings' fleet ambushed the Spanish salvage camp from the 1715 Treasure Fleet. After the Florida raid, Jennings and his crew also linked up with Benjamin Hornigold's "three sets of pirates" from New Providence Island.
The Black Swan Project is the project name given by Odyssey Marine Exploration for its discovery and recovery of an estimated US$500 million worth of silver and gold coins from the ocean floor. Initially Odyssey kept the origin of the treasure confidential. It was later proved in trial that the recovered cargo was being carried by the Spanish frigate Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, which was sunk by the British Royal Navy off Portugal in 1804.
The McLarty Treasure Museum is located at 13180 North A1A on North Hutchinson Island, north of Windsor and Vero Beach, Florida, on the barrier island at the north end of Indian River County. The museum occupies part of the former site of the Survivors' and Salvagers' Camp - 1715 Fleet, and is part of Sebastian Inlet State Park. It houses exhibits on the history of the 1715 Spanish treasure fleet, and it features artifacts, displays, and an observation deck that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. An A&E Network production, The Queen's Jewels and the 1715 Fleet, is shown, telling of the fleet's attempt to return to Spain when a hurricane struck off the Florida coast 300 years ago.
San Esteban was a Spanish cargo ship that was wrecked in a storm in the Gulf of Mexico on what is now the Padre Island National Seashore in southern Texas on 29 April 1554.
El Salvador alias El Henrique was a Spanish treasure ship that ran aground near present-day Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina during a hurricane in August 1750. She was traveling with six other Spanish merchantmen including the Nuestra Señora De Soledad which went ashore near present-day Core Banks, NC and the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe which went ashore near present-day Ocracoke, NC.
The Flying Gang was an 18th-century group of pirates who established themselves in Nassau, New Providence in the Bahamas after the destruction of Port Royal in Jamaica. The gang consisted of the most notorious and cunning pirates of the time, and they terrorized and pillaged the Caribbean until the Royal Navy and infighting brought them to justice. They achieved great fame and wealth by raiding salvagers attempting to recover gold from the sunken Spanish treasure fleet. They established their own codes and governed themselves independent from any of the colonial powers of the time. Nassau was deemed the Republic of Pirates as it attracted many former privateers looking for work to its shores. The Governor of Bermuda stated that there were over 1,000 pirates in Nassau at that time and that they outnumbered the mere hundred inhabitants in the town.
Events in the year 1715 in Spain.
