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Ships wrecked on a terrible shore
By Murphy Givens (Contact)
Originally published 05:13 a.m., January 23, 2008
Updated 05:14 a.m., January 23, 2008
Four ships were making ready to sail from San Juan de UlĂşa, the port of Veracruz, on April 9, 1554. They were homeward bound for Seville, with a stop to meet the rest of the armada at Havana. As the ships were taking on cargo and passengers, a Dominican priest, Juan Ferrer, had forebodings of disaster.
"Woe be those who are going to Spain," Ferrer told fellow passengers. "Neither we nor the fleet will ever arrive. Most of us will perish."
Four great-bellied galleons -- the Santa Maria de Yciar, San Estebán, EspĂritu Santo, and San AndrĂ©s -- were loaded with gold, cochineal, but mostly silver from the vast silver mines at Zacatecas. It was a treasure fleet -- Plata Flota, the silver fleet.
The priest's forebodings of disaster were forgotten. The ships had smooth sailing across the Gulf. They landed at Havana to join other ships in the armada, a precaution against the dangers of piracy.
The ships sailed for Spain but were caught in a tropical storm. It forced them back across the Gulf and wrecked the Santa Maria de Yciar, San Estebán, EspĂritu Santo on an island. The battered San AndrĂ©s returned to Havana; another ship from the armada made it back to San Juan de UlĂşa to tell the grim news of the loss of the Plata Flota.
The ships ran aground on the white islands -- Las Islas Blanca. Some 300 crewmen, soldiers, priests and passengers, including women and children, came ashore by swimming or clinging to pieces of wreckage.
They stayed by the wrecks for six days. Some swam back to the San Estebán, whose masts were above water, and brought back ham, hardtack, and cajetas, a jam in a wooden box. They also brought back five quivers of arrows and two crossbows made of well-tempered steel.
They decided to try to reach a Spanish settlement rather than wait for a salvage fleet to arrive. They thought they were only three or four days away from the Pánuco River near Tampico. In reality, they were hundreds of miles away -- about 40 days walking instead of three.
The Karankawas attacked
On the seventh day, they awoke to find the dunes crowded with tall painted men, who brought fish and fire. But as they ate, the Indians -- Karankawas -- attacked. Two soldiers with the crossbows killed three Indians and wounded many more. The Karankawas retreated after killing a single Spaniard.
The survivors escaped into the dunes, protected by the two crossbows, and began to march down the island toward the Pánuco River. Thinking it was close, they didn't carry much food.
After five days, they were eating shellfish found on the beach and licking early morning dew from island grasses. They didn't know, as Karankawas knew, they could dig down a few feet in the sand to find drinking water.
Time and again, the Indians returned to the attack. Many of the survivors were killed as they fled under a blazing sun with Karankawas in deadly pursuit. The sands were burning hot. Most of them were without shoes. Children cried, but their mothers were too weak to carry them.
The Karankawas captured two stragglers, made them undress, then let them go. The Spanish thought that perhaps it was their clothes the Indians wanted. Men, women and children undressed and left their clothes on the sand.
A man from Vizcaya refused to give up his colored jacket. He became a target for the Indians; they killed him, tore his jacket into pieces, and distributed the bits of cloth like prized tokens.
The women and children, now naked, were sent ahead, mostly for safety, since the attacks had come from the rear. But the Indians, moving as swift as deer, went around and attacked the women and children.
Children with arrow wounds cried to their mothers, who were helpless. Terror wiped out what little strength they had left. All the women and children were slain before the party reached Brazos Pass.
Some 200 men were still alive, but only barely. They were weary and miserable, with no food or water, their strength ebbing.
But they managed to make rafts out of driftwood and began to cross Brazos Pass. A priest, tired of lugging his belongings, threw them in the pass. But he threw the wrong bundle overboard. It was the bundle with the two crossbows.
The Indians realized the Spanish had no protection. They moved in close, killing at will. By the time they reached the Rio Grande, almost all of the men had been slain. One man, Francisco Vazquez, hid and retraced the route of march, returning to the shipwreck site. Another man, a Dominican lay brother, Marcos de Mena, received seven arrow wounds, including one in his right eye, but he managed, in delirium, to make his way to Tampico. Of the 300 in that terrible journey of death, these were the only survivors. (Their accounts have given us the intimate details of this tragedy.)
When the news reached Mexico City, salvage expeditions were launched. Divers brought up the silver and gold bullion from the San Estebán, which was easily found with its masts above water. They found the Santa Maria de Yciar and EspĂritu Santo by dragging a chain between two small vessels. Most of the treasure was recovered, carefully weighed and catalogued in Veracruz before it was sent on to Seville.
Four centuries later, another hurricane uncovered the resting place of one of the ancient ships. The wreck was found north of the Mansfield cut on Padre Island. In 1967, a salvage operation by Platoro, Ltd. recovered items from the wrecked galleon. They found silver and gold coins, a small gold crucifix, cannonballs, astrolabes, even cockroach fossils. The state sued the salvage firm; the case took 17 years to settle before the treasure was obtained by the state.
Excavations in 1972 and 1973 by the Texas Antiquities Committee confirmed that three shipwreck sites -- within 2½ miles of each other, 2.8 miles north of the Mansfield cut -- were the remains of the Santa Maria de Yciar, San Estebán, and EspĂritu Santo, ships of the silver fleet lost in that tragic year of 1554.
Murphy Givens is Viewpoints Editor of the Caller-Times. Phone: 886-4315; e-mail: givensm@ caller.com.
kenb
By Murphy Givens (Contact)
Originally published 05:13 a.m., January 23, 2008
Updated 05:14 a.m., January 23, 2008
Four ships were making ready to sail from San Juan de UlĂşa, the port of Veracruz, on April 9, 1554. They were homeward bound for Seville, with a stop to meet the rest of the armada at Havana. As the ships were taking on cargo and passengers, a Dominican priest, Juan Ferrer, had forebodings of disaster.
"Woe be those who are going to Spain," Ferrer told fellow passengers. "Neither we nor the fleet will ever arrive. Most of us will perish."
Four great-bellied galleons -- the Santa Maria de Yciar, San Estebán, EspĂritu Santo, and San AndrĂ©s -- were loaded with gold, cochineal, but mostly silver from the vast silver mines at Zacatecas. It was a treasure fleet -- Plata Flota, the silver fleet.
The priest's forebodings of disaster were forgotten. The ships had smooth sailing across the Gulf. They landed at Havana to join other ships in the armada, a precaution against the dangers of piracy.
The ships sailed for Spain but were caught in a tropical storm. It forced them back across the Gulf and wrecked the Santa Maria de Yciar, San Estebán, EspĂritu Santo on an island. The battered San AndrĂ©s returned to Havana; another ship from the armada made it back to San Juan de UlĂşa to tell the grim news of the loss of the Plata Flota.
The ships ran aground on the white islands -- Las Islas Blanca. Some 300 crewmen, soldiers, priests and passengers, including women and children, came ashore by swimming or clinging to pieces of wreckage.
They stayed by the wrecks for six days. Some swam back to the San Estebán, whose masts were above water, and brought back ham, hardtack, and cajetas, a jam in a wooden box. They also brought back five quivers of arrows and two crossbows made of well-tempered steel.
They decided to try to reach a Spanish settlement rather than wait for a salvage fleet to arrive. They thought they were only three or four days away from the Pánuco River near Tampico. In reality, they were hundreds of miles away -- about 40 days walking instead of three.
The Karankawas attacked
On the seventh day, they awoke to find the dunes crowded with tall painted men, who brought fish and fire. But as they ate, the Indians -- Karankawas -- attacked. Two soldiers with the crossbows killed three Indians and wounded many more. The Karankawas retreated after killing a single Spaniard.
The survivors escaped into the dunes, protected by the two crossbows, and began to march down the island toward the Pánuco River. Thinking it was close, they didn't carry much food.
After five days, they were eating shellfish found on the beach and licking early morning dew from island grasses. They didn't know, as Karankawas knew, they could dig down a few feet in the sand to find drinking water.
Time and again, the Indians returned to the attack. Many of the survivors were killed as they fled under a blazing sun with Karankawas in deadly pursuit. The sands were burning hot. Most of them were without shoes. Children cried, but their mothers were too weak to carry them.
The Karankawas captured two stragglers, made them undress, then let them go. The Spanish thought that perhaps it was their clothes the Indians wanted. Men, women and children undressed and left their clothes on the sand.
A man from Vizcaya refused to give up his colored jacket. He became a target for the Indians; they killed him, tore his jacket into pieces, and distributed the bits of cloth like prized tokens.
The women and children, now naked, were sent ahead, mostly for safety, since the attacks had come from the rear. But the Indians, moving as swift as deer, went around and attacked the women and children.
Children with arrow wounds cried to their mothers, who were helpless. Terror wiped out what little strength they had left. All the women and children were slain before the party reached Brazos Pass.
Some 200 men were still alive, but only barely. They were weary and miserable, with no food or water, their strength ebbing.
But they managed to make rafts out of driftwood and began to cross Brazos Pass. A priest, tired of lugging his belongings, threw them in the pass. But he threw the wrong bundle overboard. It was the bundle with the two crossbows.
The Indians realized the Spanish had no protection. They moved in close, killing at will. By the time they reached the Rio Grande, almost all of the men had been slain. One man, Francisco Vazquez, hid and retraced the route of march, returning to the shipwreck site. Another man, a Dominican lay brother, Marcos de Mena, received seven arrow wounds, including one in his right eye, but he managed, in delirium, to make his way to Tampico. Of the 300 in that terrible journey of death, these were the only survivors. (Their accounts have given us the intimate details of this tragedy.)
When the news reached Mexico City, salvage expeditions were launched. Divers brought up the silver and gold bullion from the San Estebán, which was easily found with its masts above water. They found the Santa Maria de Yciar and EspĂritu Santo by dragging a chain between two small vessels. Most of the treasure was recovered, carefully weighed and catalogued in Veracruz before it was sent on to Seville.
Four centuries later, another hurricane uncovered the resting place of one of the ancient ships. The wreck was found north of the Mansfield cut on Padre Island. In 1967, a salvage operation by Platoro, Ltd. recovered items from the wrecked galleon. They found silver and gold coins, a small gold crucifix, cannonballs, astrolabes, even cockroach fossils. The state sued the salvage firm; the case took 17 years to settle before the treasure was obtained by the state.
Excavations in 1972 and 1973 by the Texas Antiquities Committee confirmed that three shipwreck sites -- within 2½ miles of each other, 2.8 miles north of the Mansfield cut -- were the remains of the Santa Maria de Yciar, San Estebán, and EspĂritu Santo, ships of the silver fleet lost in that tragic year of 1554.
Murphy Givens is Viewpoints Editor of the Caller-Times. Phone: 886-4315; e-mail: givensm@ caller.com.
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