1540. Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortez ordered three small caravels, under the command of Captain Francisco de Ulloa, to explore the coast of California. Before reaching the waters of California, one of the ships, the Santo Tomás, was scuttled and another, the Santa Agueda was sent back to Mexico. The remaining ship, the Trinidad, 35-tons, and her twenty-four crewmen, continued on alone and by summer was in the vicinity of San Diego. By the end of August, the tiny caravel was moored off San Luis Rey and all of the men were placed ashore due to sickness. A sudden storm blew in while the crew was ashore and the Trinidad disappeared. Apparently the anchor cable parted and the vessel drifted to places unknown. In recent years there has been a great deal of publicity concerning persons claiming to have located this shipwreck as well as claims that a substantial amount of treasure has been recovered from the wreck. One author claims the log of the Santa Agueda tells of Ulloa removing a chest of gold from his ship and placing it aboard the Trinidad. However, no evidence to substantiate the claim of the discovery and no proof the ship carried any treasure has turned up. Even if the wreck is discovered, there is little chance that the Trinidad carried any treasure at all, with the exception of a few personal effects belonging to members of the crew. Various theories place the wreck site the near Santa Ana River, or somewhere off Point La Jolla, possibly between Encinitas and Solano Beach. The San Luis Rey Historical Society offered a $10,000 reward to anyone finding the remains of the Trinidad. The reward still remains unclaimed to this day. (Note: The first published account of the Ulloa expedition can be found in Francisco Lopez de Gomara’s book, the Conquista de Mexico, probably written shortly after 1542. A few years later, in 1556, an extended account of the expedition appears in G.B. Ramusio’s Navigationi et Viaggi, volume III, translated in Italian and purported to have been written by Francisco Preciado, who witnessed and recorded the events of the voyage in the form of a diary. That Preciado wrote in Spanish seems most likely, but if so the original has disappeared. In 1600, the Italian version was translated by English historian Richard Hakluyt and published in Principal Navigations, volume III. For more information see California Voyages: 1539-1541, Translation of Original Documents, edited by Henry R. Wagner, published in 1925.) (Source: Shipwrecks & Nautical Archaeology of the New World: A Comprehensive Directory 1492-1900) PP. 921)
