2801) Did You Know Series (77): "Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas" (Our Lady of Wonders), Spain: i) The Spanish Treasure Fleet System; ii) The Treasure Fleets sailing routes; iii) Spanish Treasure Shipwrecks - a prime target; iv) The "Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas"; v) The Salvage Operations; vi) A Gold "Finger Bar":
i) The Spanish Treasure Fleet system designed by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Admiral in the Spanish Navy:
Spanish ships had carried goods and Gold and Silver from the New World since Christopher Columbus's first expedition of 1492.
The organized system of convoys dates from 1564, but Spain sought to protect shipping prior to that by organising protection around the largest Caribbean island, Cuba, and the maritime region of southern Spain and the Canary Islands because of attacks by pirates and foreign navies.
In the 1560s, the Spanish government created a system of convoys in response to the sacking of Havana by French privateers.
The main procedures were established based on the recommendations of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, an experienced admiral and personal adviser of King Philip II.
ii) The Treasure Fleets sailed along two sea lanes:
The main one was the "Caribbean Spanish West Indies fleet" (or "Flota de Indias"), which departed in two convoys from Seville, bound for ports such as Veracruz, Portobelo and Cartagena before making a rendezvous at Havana in order to return together to Spain.
A secondary route was that of the "Manila Galleons" (or "Galeón de Manila", which linked the Philippines to Acapulco in Mexico across the Pacific Ocean.
From Acapulco, the Asian goods were transshipped by mule train to Veracruz to be loaded onto the Caribbean treasure fleet for shipment to Spain.
Spain relied on a constant stream of New World Gold and Silver along with jewellery, precious stones, and pearls to fund the kingdom’s expenses.
To better defend this trade, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and Álvaro de Bazán designed the definitive model of the galleon in the 1550s.
The Spanish Treasure Fleets are considered among the most successful naval operations in history, and, from a commercial point of view, they made possible key components of today's global economic system.
iii) Spanish Treasure Shipwrecks - a prime target:
Wrecks of Spanish treasure ships, which were sunk in naval combat or as was more usually the case, by storms (with the ones which occurred 1622, 1715, 1733 and 1750 being among the worst), are a prime target for modern treasure hunters.
Many, such as the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, and the Santa Margarita have been salvaged.
iv) The "Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas":
The "Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas" leading the Spanish Treasure Flotilla
The "Maravillas" was a two-deck Spanish galleon armed with 36 bronze cannons.
In 1654 it was serving as the "Almirante" ("vice-flagship") of the "Tierra Firme" ("Mainland") fleet when it sank. It was carrying ‘treasure’ to Seville, both as royal tax and private property.
The Maravillas followed the well-established route between Spain and the Americas to pick up silver ‘treasure’.
The ship left Southern Spain on 10.07.1654 and reached Cartagena in Colombia on 22.08.1654.
Fleets waited there for word that silver from Bolivia and Peru had reached Portobello in Panama.
Due to an unexpected delay after the treasure ship supplying the 1654 fleet, the "Jesus Maria de la Limpia Concepción" of the South Sea Armada, sank on a reef off Ecuador on 27.10.1654, the Maravillas was forced to spend the winter in Cartagena to avoid hurricanes, pick up the Jesus Maria’s salvaged silver and await a fresh cargo.
After the departure of the Maravillas from Cartagena in July, English naval raids in the northern Caribbean prevented the Spanish ship from reaching its next port, Havana, until October.
On 01.01.1656, after repairs and restocking of the ships’ stores were completed, the Spanish treasure fleet left Havana for Spain. The Maravillas, (as the Almiranta of the fleet), led the way.
The Maravillas in stormy seas just before it entered shallow waters and sank
The Maravillas sank off the Little Bahama Bank on 04.01.1656. The loss was caused by a navigational error, when near midnight, the "Nuestra Señora de la Concepción" - "Capitana" ("flagship"), collided with the Maravillas.
At midnight on 04.01.1656, the Maravillas accidentally entered shallow water off Grand Bahama Island.
The crew drastically reduced her speed and attempted to signal the fleet to halt by using cannon fire. Several ships misjudged the signals and continued forward. One of those ships struck the Maravillas near her bow, fatally damaging the galleon.
The Maravillas’ captain attempted to ground her on a nearby reef. However, the ship took on water too quickly and partially sank in deeper water. Its planks broke between the top of the waterline and the holds.
Strong winds and waves began to tear the ship apart as her crew clung to any masts and rigging still above water.
In under 30 minutes after the collision, the Maravillas violently struck a coral reef and sank.
The majority of the 650 people on the galleon grabbed hold of floating debris and drifted away, never to be seen again.
About 150 clung to pieces of the galleon still above the water. Most died from exposure during the night or were eaten by sharks. Only 45 people survived the night and were rescued by another galleon in the fleet which had anchored nearby. Around 600 people were lost.
iv) The "Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas" - Treasure:
The Maravillas was one of the great treasure-laden Spanish galleons.
It was unusual because it was transporting a double cargo - both its own consignment of silver, as well as silver salvaged from the wreck of the Jesús María de la Limpia Concepción that was supposed to supply the 1654 fleet but sank off Ecuador in 10/1654.
The Maravillas itself carried over 5 million pesos in treasure meant for mainland Spain, including salvaged coins from the wreck of the Jesús María de la Limpia Concepción.
The majority of the treasure – an estimated 3.5 million pieces of eight – was salvaged between 1656 and the early 1990s.
The wreck is heavily scattered. No coherent mound or intact section of hull survives after centuries of heavy salvage. Stone ballast defines where the hull foundered.
Artifacts are scattered along a debris trail extending over 13 kilometers. They tend to be found under dense sands, often lying on dead coral reefs. The sterncastle broke off the Maravillas when the ship sank and floated away. Its latest discoveries are thought to come from the missing end of the vessel.
Apart from the enormous treasure, the personal belongings of officers, crew and passengers that were preserved in the shipwreck let the salvage teams reconstruct daily life at sea.
Ceramics show how the crew and officers ate and stored foodstuffs, while shoe buckles and tobacco pipes reveal how they dressed and passed time.
For a time, the Maravillas and her treasure were a complete loss.
The wreck of the Maravillas dates between the well-documented remains of the 1622 and 1715 Spanish fleets, both sunk off Florida.
King Philip IV ruled between 1621 and 1665, and the Maravillas offers an opportunity to study the end of the Golden Age of Spain that drew to a close with the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 after the Franco-Spanish War.
The wreck of the Maravillas is a sunken porthole into the consumer tastes of Spain in the crucial period in the country’s history and into its colonial relationship with Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia in the Americas.
v) The Salvage Operatons:
After 350 years, a team of marine archaeologists has found the treasure that was aboard the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas in 1656.
In mid-1656, Spanish divers led by Capitan Juan de Somovilla Texada located the site of the scattered Maravillas wreck.
Picking amongst the debris yielded a small fraction of the whole treasure. Subsequent salvage work over the next three years resulted in a modest recovery of about a quarter of her riches. The wreck site was then covered by sand and lost for over 300 years.
In 1972, Robert F. Marx and his salvage company, Seafinders Inc., located the Maravillas.
After identifying the wreck and obtaining a lease form the Bahamian government, they began salvaging coins, artifacts, and ingots from the site. Many of their recoveries were sold at auction two years later.
In the late 1980s, Herbert Humphreys and his company, Marex, conducted further salvage work on the Maravillas.
In addition to coins and artifacts, Marex recovered several gold “finger” bars from the ocean floor. The recovered treasure was then sold in the original Christie’s sale of Maravillas treasure in 05/1992.
During the salvage operations, pendants, gold chains and other artifacts from the remains of the wreck, have been found along a trail of more than 9 miles. Among the jewels that have been found, there is a gold pendant with the cross of Santiago and others with symbols of the pilgrims of the Camino de Santiago.
Under the Antiquities, Monuments and Museum Act (Amended 2011), all wreckage in Bahamian waters is the property of the Government of The Bahamas.
Allen Exploration was granted a survey license in 2019 and an excavation license in 2020.
Salvaged items are divided between the Government of The Bahamas and AllenX.
Allen Exploration has kept its finds/collection together for the public good by sponsoring the build, opening and running of The Bahamas Maritime Museum. There are no intentions to split up the collection or sell it.
This interesting Colombian Gold “finger” Bar was lost for over 330 years in the sinking of the Spanish treasure gallon Maravillas on 05.01.1656, off Grand Bahama Island.
The gold bar was cast and stamped in Zaragoza, an important gold-producing region in Colombia, as indicated on the bar by the complete foundry and assayer cartouche with "RIBERA / ZARAGOZA" inside.
The top of the bar shows three clear fineness markings consisting of XIX inside a box next to a dot (the symbol for a quarter karat) inside a separate box, the fineness was also lightly incised into the surface prior to stamping.
There are partial imprints of four circular tax stamps showing different parts of a typical Philip IV legend (as on the coins).
Several patches of white coral encrustation across its surfaces corroborate its shipwreck pedigree.
In early 1655, such bars were loaded aboard the Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas in Cartagena, Colombia.
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