Pedro Banks Pistols

[divewrecks]

Found by accident. Thought some here would like to add it to their digital library....

"Description and Analysis of Flintlock Pistols Recovered from a Seventeenth-Century Shipwreck on Pedro Bank Jamaica"

Texas A&M Master's Thesis by Lisa Lynn Garigen, 1991

http://nautarch.tamu.edu/pdf-files/G...-MA%201991.pdf

Stan

[aquanut]

Stan, That's pretty cool.
However, out of curiosity, I would hope there is more to a Masters Thesis than whats presented here. My 3 semesters of college doesn't give me any insight on the requirements of a Masters Thesis, but an analysis such as this, though informative and detailed is surprisingly mundane when we consider any special insight.
Aquanut

[divewrecks]

Stan, That's pretty cool.
However, out of curiosity, I would hope there is more to a Masters Thesis than whats presented here. My 3 semesters of college doesn't give me any insight on the requirements of a Masters Thesis, but an analysis such as this, though informative and detailed is surprisingly mundane when we consider any special insight.
Aquanut

I gathered that too from the limited time I spend paging through it. I did notice on the coversheet the author had included "Major Subject: Anthropology", so maybe that somehow explains the lack of depth. Then again it may have been a C- paper! Anyway, there is room in my digital library for this reference, space on the bookshelf goes for a premium....

Thanks for the PM on the party. I would love to make it!

Stan

[Bum Luck]

I agree, although the farthest I got is DNG in Fraternity Life.

It did pique my curiosity about Pedro Bank, and its twins, Serrano and Serranillo Banks. I got the Admiralty charts around here someplace, but I can't recall they showed any old wrecks.

Does anyone have any idea where the wrecks are?

[Panfilo]

That flintlock pistol recovered from Pedro Banks is most certainly part of the cargo aboard one of the four Tierra Firme galleons that sank there in 1691. They were commanded by a relative of mine, the Marquis of Vado, “General de galeones don Diego de Córdoba y Lasso de la Vega, marqués del Vado del Maestre, Capitán de la Guardia y Carrera de las Indias”
None of the coins recovered were dated after 1689 therefore this strongly suggests that indeed this wreck is part of the Marquis de Vado fleet, most probably the Santa Cruz or the N.S. del Carmen as the researcher states.
Indeed both Pedro Banks and the Serranillas were referred to and regarded at the time as the “Viboras” (snakes or vipers) causing some confusion to the sailors and cartographers of the period and certainly in modern times. They differ in that Pedro Banks are in Jamaican waters whereas Serranilla is under Colombian jurisdiction.

Bob Weller, “Frogfoot” wrote a fascinating book called “Galleon Hunt” that relates the adventures of Art McKee who found the 1730 Genovesa in these same shoals and recovered great amount of treasure in 1979. If you are interested in Pedro Banks Bum Luck, I suggest you read this interesting book.
Panfilo

[jeff k]

Panfilo... This ancestor is more famous.

PANFILO DE NARVAEZ was duly commissioned to fit out a fleet in 1527 to conquer and govern the country on the Gulf of Mexico, extending from the river of Palms (near Tampico) to Cape Florida. He sailed from the port of St. Lucar on the 17th June with five vessels, carrying six hundred men, to establish a colony; but, owing to detentions, he did not reach the bay of Espiritu Santo (Tampa Bay), Florida, until Holy Thursday, April 14, 1528. He took formal possession of this vast territory on the Gulf of Mexico on Good Friday, and issued a proclamation to the Indians that unless they acknowledged the sovereignty of the Pope and the Emperor (Charles V.) they, their wives, and children shall be made slaves of, and sold as they shall think fit. The natives met him with a bold front on his landing, and motioned to him to go back to his ships. He left one hundred men on board of his ships, and with the remainder he set out to explore the country, determined to proceed to the head-waters of the Apalachee, where he expected to find the treasures of gold and silver he came in search of. But, after disastrous wanderings over a vast country without finding any gold, and greatly discouraged as to the nature and resources of the country, he turned his expedition toward the sea, and after nine days of fighting with the natives, whom he represented as men of fine proportions, tall, and great strength, who discharged their arrows with great force, he finally reached Ante, on the sea-coast, now known as St. Marks (San Marco d'Apalachee), and near the Bay of Apalachicola. Utterly dispirited, he embarked the remnant of his half-starved troops in rude and hastily-built boats for Panuco on the 22nd September, 1528; and after entering the sea, and encountering violent storms, he and most of his companions were swallowed up in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The survivors, CABECA DE VACA and three others, remained six years in the country among the coast Indians, and finally found their way back, after incredible hardships, to Mexico; and, on his return to Spain, DE VACA published an interesting narrative of his adventures.

[Salvor6]

Here is the journal of Cabeza de Vaca: http://www.losttrails.com/pages/Tales/devaca_xx.html

[Panfilo]

I now have in my night table a very interesting book given to me by my good friend “Mongo” Marich (from Gold Barr Explorations) “A Land so Strange” “The extraordinary tale of a shipwrecked Spaniard who walked across America in the sixteenth century” written by Professor Andres Resendez.

Nevertheless Jeff, I think that the fascinating life of the Marquis del Vado is yet to be written and no less full of adventures.