The sinking of the silver fleet (1733)

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The sinking of the silver fleet in a hurricane in July 1733 off the Florida Keys was one of the largest shipping disasters of the 18th century.

history

On August 2, 1732, a Spanish silver fleet under the command of General Don Rodrigo de Torres left Spain and sailed for Mexico. It reached Veracruz in early October . It was not until the end of May of the following year that the ships were again loaded with treasures and goods from the Spanish colonies and left the port for Havana , which they reached in mid-June. Further goods were loaded in Havana. General Torres knew that the hurricane season began, but he also knew that the Spanish crown with the fleet transported 12 million pesos much needed, so that the fleet on July 13, 1733 Havana left and the Florida Street direction Spain sailed. The fleet consisted of four warships and 17 or 18 merchant ships, the flagship of Torres was the El Rubi Secundo .

On the second day, the wind increased so much that Torres gave the order to return to Havana on July 15th. However, the wind was already too strong so that the ships could no longer turn back. Only one ship finally managed to return to Havana, the others sank or stranded in the course of the night on a 130 km long section off the Florida Keys.

Fortunately for the Spaniards, the hurricane did not fully hit the fleet. The ships sank in shallow water or stranded on the coral reefs. The survivors were able to escape to the islands and recover food and some of the treasures from the ships. A rescue fleet consisting of nine ships with food, soldiers, divers and rescue equipment was sent from Havana to rescue the castaways and to retrieve the treasures. The recovery dragged on for several years, but after just three months gold and silver worth over 12 million pesos had been recovered, which is clear evidence that large amounts of gold and silver are being smuggled into Spain on board the fleet should. Four ships could even be repaired to the point where they could be towed back to Havana. The sinking points of the other ships were mapped, then the wreckage above the waterline was burned so that divers could get to other treasures and to make it more difficult for pirates to find the wrecks.

Rediscovery

Over the centuries, the places where ships went down fell into oblivion. In 1937, a local fisherman Art McKee , a professional diver who worked for the US Navy and various companies, showed the remains of a shipwreck that lay 8 m deep off Plantation Key . McKee found artifacts, including a gold coin minted in 1721, and using copies of documents and maps from Spanish archives, determined that he had discovered El Rubi, the flagship of the silver fleet that sank in 1733.

For several years McKee recovered over 1000 silver coins, statues, several cannons, jewels and other items from the wreck. In 1949 he decided to set up a Museum of Sunken Treasure on Plantation Key to present the found objects to the public. His work led to the discovery of further wrecks of the silver fleet, which sank in 1733. However, the remains of the wrecks have rarely been explored by archaeologists, but mostly tracked down by treasure hunters. They paid little attention to the historical significance of the finds and were mainly interested in usable treasures. When underwater archaeologists examined the sunken ships on behalf of the authorities from the 1970s, they discovered that the treasure hunters had irrevocably destroyed many historical remains. It wasn't until 1984 that no further permits for private treasure hunters were issued, and with the establishment of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary in 1990, underwater treasure hunting was banned altogether. The location of the wreckage of the San Pedro , a merchant ship of the silver fleet, was declared on April 1, 1989 to represent the sunken silver fleet as the second Underwater Archaeological Preserve in Florida. McKee's finds and other artifacts from the sunken ships are now in the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Maritime Heritage. Retrieved February 9, 2013 .