Oldest wreck in US waters

mad4wrecks

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Dec 20, 2004
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The shipwrecks off Padre Island, TX were probably constructed in the first few decades of the 1500's. They wrecked in 1554.

Tom
 

ivan salis

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the 3 - 1554 treasure fleet vessels off padre island would have to be a contender .
 

treshuntintom

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May 24, 2007
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Really great book"Padre Island Treasure Kingdom of the World"by William Mahan.Published in 1967.Kinda hard to find.Try to find one with dust jacket.Lucky to have 2 copies,1 signed by Bill.While on the subject,in the library on the "Polly L"I found a book called"Six Galleons for the King of Spain".Written by Carla Rahn Phillips.Finally found 1 an Ebay couple years ago.Great book about the Spanish Galleons.
 

signumops

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A ship's timber found near Woman Key (Key West area), carbon-dated to mid to late 1400's. Old timber on new ship, or, new timber on old ship(?). It is believed to be a futtock (don't touch that!).

Also Tristan de Luna's ship (Emmanual Point Wreck) in the panhandle dates pretty far back... 1559.
 

culverin

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Sep 28, 2009
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we are looking for a ship lost in 1563 . one of her bronze cannons is the small gun in my avatar.
 

signumops

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Here's some possibilities listed in Claudio Bonifacio's "Galleons And Sunken Treasure".

ID: 1275 WATERS: HIGH SEAS IO:
YEAR: 1563 VESSEL: El Angel Bueno
LOCATION: Atlantic Ocean, of New Spain FIX:
CITATION: AGI, Indiferente General 2001
REMARKS: A rich cargo


ID: 187 WATERS: CUBA IO: Outbound
YEAR: 1563 VESSEL: San Andres
LOCATION: Havana FIX:
CITATION: AGI: Contratacion 2898, folio 226
REMARKS:


ID: 364 WATERS: MEXICO IO: Outbound
YEAR: 1563 VESSEL: Santa Maria Guadalupe
LOCATION: Undetermined FIX:
CITATION: AGI Contratacion, leg. 709, 5011 and 5104
REMARKS: Master Salvador Gomez. He had just left Honduras.
 

Galleon Hunter

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Believe I have an example that is about a half a century older than the 1554 Padre Island shipwrecks.

I remember a few years ago reading an article about archaeologists from the University of Hawaii finding a shipwreck that represented a large Polynesian war canoe that dated to around 1,000 A.D.
 

Galleon Hunter

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Here is a little more info on these incredible vessels used by these ancient mariners.

Waka taua (war canoes) were large canoes manned by up to 80 paddlers and are up to 40 metres (130 ft) in length. Large waka were usually elaborately carved and decorated, consisted of a main hull formed from a single hollowed-out log, along with a carved upright head and tailboard. The gunwale is raised in some by a continuous plank which gives increased freeboard and prevents distortion of the main hull components when used in a rough seas. Sometimes the hull is further strengthened, as in the case of Te Winika, a 200-year-old design, by a batten or stringer running lengthwise both inside and outside the hull just above the loaded waterline.

Courtesy Wikpedia
 

OP
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keywesttdiver

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Jun 4, 2011
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Great onfo !!! Thanks to all who replied ! I actually just saw an hour story on tv about the canoe found from the year 1000 a.d..in Hawaii [and they found parts of another canoe and fish hooks made of bone on Catalina island just off of California]. it went on to say that on the east coast ,in the exact same year..Leif Erickson traveled from Greenland to Canada ..and most certainly the USA.....a full 492 years earlier than Chris Columbus ! :read2:
 

mad4wrecks

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No European nation discovered the 'New' World. They all invaded it.
 

stevemc

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I think they wrote the history books years ago, and everyone thought that was the truth, the way it is. Yes, there has been a lot of explorers on North and South America prior to 1492. I am sure there are many people who never heard of Cristabol Colon! There have been quite a few finds in Oklahoma and other interior states of early, very early, European explorers. A coin from Roman times was found in central US. A lot of this was also just tossed aside. As far as we know the Emanuel Point wreck is the oldest found shipwreck, but of course there are the old native indian dugout canoes found. I was on the Ichatucknee River years ago, and walking around a slough, and found what I think was a dugout canoe. It had cypress knees growing up through it, but it was a canoe shape, and felt like a dugout. I am sure that was much older than the Emanuel Point Wreck (Tristan De Luna). Keywestdiver, do you think your wreck is an old one? Real old? That would be nice. There are a ton of 1800s wrecks, of all kinds out there. Check it out good, and do recover something to date it.
 

wwwtimmcp

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I think the chinese claim to have lost a ship on the west coast in the sacramento river. the wood of the 85 foot ship carbon dated to 1410.
 

stevemc

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Yes, I remember years ago, that some stone anchors were found, that looked like the ancient Asian stone anchors. But I dont think any ancient Asian shipwrecks have been found.
 

culverin

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if we are going to count Indian canoes, during the last big drought we had in Fl. lots of lakes in N. Fl. dried up and there were so many pre Columbian dug out canoes that all the museams took all they could handle and they left the rest in stisu.
 

Saturna

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mad4wrecks said:
No European nation discovered the 'New' World. They all invaded it.


That's the unfortunate history of humankind worldwide. I hope you don't think 'native' people never invaded each other.
 

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