1715 Fleet - New Seville/Cadiz Documents

grossmusic

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I detect the history: I've visited archives up & down the entire US East Coast, Bahamas, Jamaica, Kew, The Hague, etc. Have yet to go to Seville or S.American archives.
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Shipwrecks
Dr. Lyon showed these papers to me at the picnic & I've let busyness selfishly keep me from sharing. Here's the first page. We had a challenge of taking pics in the hot sun on the hood of his friend's car.

Some has been translated, but would love to have full translation. Anyone game?

I'm hoping John de Bry will be able to share some of the documents he got in Cuba a couple years ago. He did discover that there were far more casualties (& survivors) than previously thought.
 

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Thank you, Tammy! You are always so generous. 8-)
 

52 days from Vera Cruz to Havana! So did the ships typically head north to catch the Gulfstream then down to Havana from some point in the Gulf?
 

52 days from Vera Cruz to Havana! So did the ships typically head north to catch the Gulfstream then down to Havana from some point in the Gulf?

Yes, after leaving Vera Cruz they headed north along the coast. The current in the Gulf is called the Loop Current. That's why the 1554 fleet wrecked in Texas. They followed the coastline to Key West and then Havana.
 

Yes, after leaving Vera Cruz they headed north along the coast. The current in the Gulf is called the Loop Current. That's why the 1554 fleet wrecked in Texas. They followed the coastline to Key West and then Havana.

Thx 6, kinda what I figured.

Steve
 

Of these shipwrecks there are thousands of documents in: AGI, Consulados bundles # 850, 851, 852, 853, 854 and 855. There are many details.
 

Beautiful hand, Tammy.

Wish I could translate it.
 

Of these shipwrecks there are thousands of documents in: AGI, Consulados bundles # 850, 851, 852, 853, 854 and 855. There are many details.

Was there any mention of pirate activity?
 

Was there any mention of pirate activity?
Honestly, I did not review very thoroughly the documents of 1715. The aforementioned bundles come inventoried here:

Inventario fondos Consulados.webp
 

If that is a topic of interest to you, I highly recommend Piracy in the West Indies and its Suppression. Also, Pirates of the New England Coast (don't be misled by the title - it has much on the Caribbean). Dover reprinted these in very affordable trade paperback editions. And there are always the hardcover originals from the 1920's and '30's.

Both are first-rate!

I just ordered the Folio Society General History of the Pyrates, by "Capt. Charles Johnson."


Good luck to all,

The Old Bookaroo
 

Im going to get it great post
 

the treasure fleets coming from Mexico to Havana (the new spain fleet) used dead reckoning navigation -- sailing close to land logging in where they were at by using known land marks and rivers they had marked upon maps made of the coast line --and thus were often in shallow waters along the coast ...so when bad storms struck --they often got pinned close to the coast and forced onshore or onto reefs by the storms...dead reckoning indeed...only in the mid 1700 era were time pieces made which were good enough to make it possible to navigate without using dead reckoning--the current ---there is a shoreline current along the Mexico to Florida west coast called the gulf loop --its why the Spanish put a base in Pensacola in 1554 (which was wiped out by a hurricane in 1554 after only a few months) - Pensacola was meant to be a west coast of Florida shipwreck refuge-- resupply/ rest / repair point between Mexico and Havana

after leaving Havana bound for Spain--- they would hug the east coast of Florida using the gulf stream to head northward once they got about the Jacksonville area --they would fill their fresh water barrels up and stock what food they could find onshore and head east back to Spain ---St Augustine was the east coast shipwreck refuge --rest / resupply / repair port on the east coast and with the earlir Pensacola getting wiped out in 1554 --gets to claim the oldest USA city title …

most of what I saw by dr lyon at the cookout --was a accounting list of people who died and things lost in the 1715 fleet wrecks --- I shared a few rare maps I know of with him having to do with "missing 1715 fleet vessel locations" ---
 

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