This summer, a team of scientists called Allen Exploration (AllenX) searched for scattered shipwrecks stretching south of where the 17th-century Spanish galleon known as the Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas (lit. Our Lady of the Miraculous) or simply the Maravillas sank in the northern waters of the Bahamas.
The 891-ton, double-decked galleon, armed with 36 gleaming brass cannons, was built in northern Spain. However, in 1656 January 4 The Maravillas sank on its way to Cadiz in south-west Spain with around 650 people on board – most of whom died.
In the Straits of Florida, the flagship of the flotilla rammed into a galleon during a storm, the galleon hit a reef and was badly damaged. At the time, the Maravillas was one of the most valuable ships ever lost at sea, and it also carried treasure, including a large amount of contraband and items salvaged from another ship, the Jesus Maria de la Limpia Concepción, which had sunk earlier off the coast of Ecuador .
The Spanish from Havana from 1656 to 1679. intensively searched for shipwrecks, and in the 17th century explorers from England and colonial countries followed their example. in 1972 Bob Marx searched for the shipwrecks, and in the 20th century in the early 1990s, they were searched for again by his team, then by Marex, led by Herbert Humphries. Alarmed by the lack of control over these treasure hunts, the Bahamian government in 1992 announced a moratorium on wreck “hunting”.
This summer, the team made a number of new discoveries during their investigation of the AllenX shipwreck, detailed in a report published by the Bahamas Maritime Museum in Ocean Dispatches. These include whetstones from the galleon galley, Chinese and Spanish ceramics, silver coins from Mexico and silver bars.
“The west coast of the Bahamas, opening into the Florida Straits, is a very harsh place. You’ll be lucky if you can search three days in a row because of raging winds, said Carl Allen, director of AllenX and co-author of Ocean Dispatches. “When there’s a storm, we can just sail to our base on a nearby island or head south to Grand Bahama. When the Maravillas sank 368 years ago and Spanish ships came to search for its treasure, there was nowhere in the Bahamas to shelter, repair their broken hulls, or buy essential supplies. So we ask ourselves: If AllenX is so difficult with all our modern technology, how did these treasure hunters manage hundreds of years ago?’
While the AllenX team searched the sea for shipwrecks using magnetometers and divers, the company’s historians studied the archives of Spain and England, explaining how the 17th century in the second half, the treasures of the sinking ship were “fished”.
What surprised the team was that the first inhabitants of Nassau New Providence, now the most densely populated island in the Bahamas, put down roots not to grow sugar and coffee, but to search for sunken ships and their treasures.
“Those who embarked on the treasure hunt of the ship Maravillas were called ‘pirates’ by the colonial authorities, but real lawless pirates soon arrived in the city. They were attracted to their prey, whether it was submerged or already surfaced. “We discovered a direct connection between the loss of the Maravillas, its search and recovery efforts, and the emergence of Nassau as a supply base for wreck seekers and a pirate haven,” Allen said.
It was previously believed that the port city of Nassau, the current capital and largest city of the Bahamas, became a haven for pirates when in 1715 In July, a ship carrying Spanish treasure (and one of the most valuable in the world at the time) was wrecked south of Cape Canaveral in Florida. It is said that pirates settled here because it was convenient to reach the sunken ship and its treasures from here.
18th century In the early 1800s, these marauders and other infamous pirates, such as the Flying Gang, were based in Nassau.
“Nassau was home to some of the most notorious pirates in the world,” says Michael Pateman, director of the Bahamas Maritime Museum and co-author of Ocean Dispatches. “The main pirate bases were in Madagascar and the Virgin Islands, but Nassau had the worst reputation, as it was home to Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, and his gang.”
“The port city was not only a city where conspiracies were hatched, catches were landed, loot was shared and pirates frolicked, but it was also a true pirate republic. Unlike anywhere else in the Western world, in Nassau every man and woman was equal as a pirate. They had equal voting rights, lived by the same rules, and received a fair share of the spoils. Nassau was the most democratic space in the Western Hemisphere,” he added.
But the latest discoveries about the Maravillas shed new light on what led to the port city’s rise as a notorious pirate haven, says Sean Kingsley, editor-in-chief of Wreckwatch magazine and co-author of the Ocean Dispatches report.
According to him, the new AllenX research reveals that Nassau became home to pirates more than three decades earlier than previously thought – and redefines what prompted it.
“That spur was a sunken Spanish treasure – but not one that was lost in 1715. off the coast of Florida, and the one that sank in 1656 In Bahamian waters with the Maravillas, explains S. Kingsley.
Parengta pagal „Newsweek“.
2024-09-07 19:41:28