Recent research also has shed light on the routes used for shipping during the 16th through the 19th centuries. This research suggests that there may be a higher potential for earlier shipwrecks (ca.16th-18th century) in Ultra-Deep Water (UDW) of the Gulf of Mexico (particularly in the Sigsbee Escarpment, Keathley Canyon, DeSoto Canyon, Mississippi Canyon, Green Canyon, and Walker Ridge areas). MMS studies to date have largely discounted the presence of Exploration or Colonial Period shipwrecks in significant numbers in the GOMR because of the paucity of reported shipwrecks from those periods in the secondary literature, most of which stranded along the coast. What has not been explored thoroughly are losses far from land associated with other causes (such as fire, structural failure of the hull, foundering during a storm, or armed attack). Since the likelihood of anyone surviving such a catastrophe at sea also diminishes considerably, the likelihood of its location being accurately reported is almost nil. Generally, such ships would have been reported as simply "lost at sea." Colonial Period shipwrecks in the UDW almost exclusively would be associated with the Spanish fleets leaving annually from Veracruz in Mexico bound for Havana, Cuba, and eventually for Spain. Hundreds of ships, laden with goods from Mexico, made the passage to Cuba. Prevailing winds and currents in the Gulf dictated that fleets sailed north northwest from Vera Cruz to about 26deg North Latitude before turning east for Florida. Losses of ships on this route are poorly understood and are the focus of this research. The MMS has an interest in amassing and assessing this body of research as part of our mission to protect submerged cultural resources from potential effects of oil and gas activity.
