Clipping from the Boston News-Letter, 12-26-1715

[Jolly Mon]

Boston News-Letter, 12-26-1715


One wonders exactly what "Spanish Wrecks" are referenced here.

Is it a "matter of fact" reference to the 1715 Fleet wrecks we all know and love?

Or is it a "matter of fact" reference to other wrecks located in the Bahamas?

If the former, it would seem the loss of the Spanish flotilla was well known in colonial America at a VERY early date.

 

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[captbonnie]

Nice clipping. I would say reference to 1715 Fleet. the London Gazette posted news in early Dec. 1715. Spanish salvage efforts were started at the time of the disaster. No secret. The wrecks were IN America ....trade and shipping between Havana and the rest of the Caribbean and the British as well as Spanish . Loss of a Fleet known to be laden with treasure no doubt the news travelled fast with every passenger and crew on each ship that learned of the wrecks.

 

[LM]

It references a claim made by Mr Burton from Madera, but last from the Bahamas, says the inhabitants of 'these islands' (the Bahamas) have an abundance of money from the wrecks, which would preclude it being directly salvaged by them from the 1715 pile, since the 1715 wrecks aren't in the Bahamas, however Pirate Henry Jennings put in at Nassau first, right after robbing the salvage camp at Palma de Ayz, before he went on to Jamaica so its very possible that's how so much Spanish money was suddenly dumped there.

"Seven or eight vessels from Bermuda were gone to those wrecks" is interesting. The plate fleet sailed from Havana, not Bermuda and they lost 11 ships, not 7/8, so it's either loose reporting or it's something else entirely.

 

[grossmusic]

This is my first posting! The 1715 Fleet is my area of interest and research. I'm no "elle" (Laura) but I am trying to learn all I can about the wrecks, the stories behind them and how it all relates to the Golden Age of Piracy.

Great find of that news clip!

It is most definitely the 1715 Treasure Fleet under Salmon/Echeverz/Ubilla being referenced. Jennings was only one of many pirates to raid the camps or at very least make the attempt. Most of the English who went did so with a convenient interpretation of the international laws, continuing the tradition of "privateering" despite the absence of war. Details would have been scant, but they certainly knew about the wrecks in a very short time with the proximity of their hub in the Bahamas.

The 7 or 8 vessels referenced are not those wrecked. It's those going to loot the wrecks! This was, after all, the foundation of the Golden Age of Piracy.

 

[FISHEYE]

If the news back then was anything like it is today i wouldnt believe a word of it.

 

[whydahdiver]

We used the Boston Newsletter during our research into the WHYDAH, great resource. Several of the pirates from that wreck of 1717 caught treasure fever attempting to raid the salvage camps.

WHYDAH Diver