''San Esteban'' was a Spanish cargo ship that was wrecked in a storm in the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
on what is now the
Padre Island National Seashore
Padre Island National Seashore (PINS) is a national seashore located on Padre Island off the coast of South Texas. In contrast to South Padre Island, known for its beaches and vacationing college students, PINS is located on North Padre Island ...
in southern
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
on 29 April 1554.
''San Esteban'' was one of a
flotilla
A flotilla (from Spanish, meaning a small ''flota'' (fleet) of ships), or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet.
Composition
A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same class ...
of four ships carrying treasure from
New Spain
New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...
(Mexico) to
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
. Three were wrecked in the storm, including ''San Esteban''. Many of the three hundred sailors and passengers drowned while trying to reach shore. About thirty took a boat to seek help. Almost all the others died of thirst or starvation, or were killed by hostile local
Karankawa
The Karankawa were an Indigenous people concentrated in southern Texas along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, largely in the lower Colorado River and Brazos River valleys."Karankawa." In ''Cassell's Peoples, Nations and Cultures,'' edited by John ...
Indians during their attempt to walk back to safety. The Spanish sent a salvage expedition, but recovered less than half of the cargo and treasure.
One of the wrecks was rediscovered in 1964. A private company, Platoro, Ltd., began to excavate the Espíritu Santo wreck in late 1967, which caused public outrage and the passage of new laws to protect wrecks on the Texan coast. The remains of ''San Esteban'' were found in 1970 and excavated in 1972–73. Many artifacts have been recovered and are held in the
Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History
The Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History is a science and history museum in Corpus Christi, Texas, near Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge
The Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge is a through arch bridge located in Corpus Christi, Texas which carries ...
. They include the world's oldest mariner's astrolabe with a confirmed date.
16th century
Outbound journey
''San Esteban'' left
Sanlúcar de Barrameda
Sanlúcar de Barrameda (), or simply Sanlúcar, is a city in the northwest of Cádiz province, part of the autonomous community of Andalucía in southern Spain. Sanlúcar is located on the left bank at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River oppos ...
, Spain, on 4 November 1552. It was part of a fleet of 54 ships under the command of Captain-General Bartolomé Carreño that included an escort of six well-armed ships with 360 soldiers.
The escorting ships and 18 vessels were destined for the mainland of South America. Ten ships were heading to Santo Domingo and four to other parts of the West Indies.
Sixteen were bound for
San Juan de Ulúa
San Juan de Ulúa, also known as Castle of San Juan de Ulúa, is a large complex of fortresses, prisons and one former palace on an island of the same name in the Gulf of Mexico overlooking the seaport of Veracruz, Mexico. Juan de Grijalva's ...
(
Veracruz
Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...
) in
New Spain
New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...
(Mexico).
The fleet had a difficult outbound voyage, suffering from bad weather, accidents and skirmishes with pirates. Eight vessels were lost and the rest scattered.
All the New Spain flotilla arrived safely at Vera Cruz during February and March 1553. The plan was to scrap eleven of the vessels and keep only five to make the return journey. This was typical. Ships from the Americas to Spain carried a much smaller volume of cargo than ships traveling in the other direction, although the shipments to Spain included valuable gold and silver.
In September 1552 Vera Cruz had been battered by a hurricane. The harbor facilities had not yet been repaired.
The ships were unloaded and refitted slowly, and only one was prepared to sail for
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. to join the fleet for the return journey to Spain that year.
The other four waited for over a year at Vera Cruz for the next fleet.
These were the ''San Esteban'', with Francisco del Huerto as master, ''Espíritu Santo'', ''Santa María de Yciar'' and ''San Andrés'' with Antonio Corzo as master.
Eventually the four decided not to wait longer and sailed for Havana without an escort. Antonio Corzo was named captain-general of the flotilla.
Shipwreck
Oral tradition holds that a priest in Mexico predicted that there would be a disaster before the ships set sail, but that his warning was ignored. The four ships left Vera Cruz on 9 April 1554, carrying over 400 people and valuable treasure and cargo. The passengers included wealthy citizens, merchants and former soldiers, but there were also a few prisoners and five Dominican missionaries who had decided to return to Spain. The ships carried barrels holding over of silver coins and disks that had been minted in
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
.
The total cargo was worth more than two million pesos, the equivalent of almost US$10 million in 1975.
Due to prevailing winds and currents, the best route from Veracruz to Havana ran along the shore of what became Texas and Louisiana. The four vessels took this route.
On 29 April 1554 the ships were nearing Havana when they ran into a severe storm.
Three of the ships were blown back to the west and wrecked on the
Padre Island
Padre Island is the largest of the Texas barrier islands and the world's longest barrier island. The island is located along Texas's southern coast of the Gulf of Mexico and is noted for its white sandy beaches. Meaning ''father'' in Spanish, it ...
sandbars. Only ''San Andrés'' escaped.
''Santa Maria de Yciar'' sank about north of the
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico.
The length of the Rio G ...
's mouth, where the Mansfield Channel is today.
''Espiritu Santo'' sank about to the north of this point and ''San Esteban'' was wrecked further north again.
Survivors
![Padre Island National Seashore - sand dunes3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Padre_Island_National_Seashore_-_sand_dunes3.jpg)
There were about three hundred people on the wrecked vessels, of whom perhaps 100–150 escaped drowning.
Many women and children were among those who reached shore.
Francisco del Huerto, the master of ''San Esteban'', was able to salvage a boat.
He made his way back to
Vera Cruz with 30 men to get help.
The other survivors tried to walk south along the shore, not realizing that the nearest Spanish outpost was
Tampico
Tampico is a city and port in the southeastern part of the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. It is located on the north bank of the Pánuco River, about inland from the Gulf of Mexico, and directly north of the state of Veracruz. Tampico is the fifth ...
, away.
They met local people who seemed friendly and offered food, but later a fight broke out.
The Spanish escaped but the
Karankawa
The Karankawa were an Indigenous people concentrated in southern Texas along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, largely in the lower Colorado River and Brazos River valleys."Karankawa." In ''Cassell's Peoples, Nations and Cultures,'' edited by John ...
Indians followed them, picking off stragglers with arrows.
The Spanish made driftwood rafts to cross the
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico.
The length of the Rio G ...
. They lost their crossbows when the unstable rafts tipped.
The Indians seized two men, took their clothes and then released them.
The other Spaniards thought that perhaps the Indians only wanted their clothes, and stripped naked before going on.
The women and children walked ahead to protect their modesty, and were ambushed and killed.
Almost all of the men died of thirst or starvation, or were killed.
There are records of only two who reached safety.
One, Brother Marcos de Mena, was left for dead after receiving multiple arrow wounds.
He recovered and managed to reach
Pánuco with the aid of friendly Indians.
The other, Francisco Vazquez, left the group early on and went back to the dunes facing the wrecks. He hid there until help arrived.
The event came to be called the "Wreck of the Three Hundred".
Salvage
![Spanish salvage techniques from the account by Pedro de Ledesma circa 1623](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Spanish_salvage_techniques_from_the_account_by_Pedro_de_Ledesma_circa_1623.png)
Francisco del Huerto managed to reach Vera Cruz and tell of the tragic event.
A rescue mission was dispatched by sea under
Ángel de Villafañe
Ángel de Villafañe (b. c. 1504) was a Spanish conquistador of Florida, Mexico, and Guatemala, and was an explorer, expedition leader, and ship captain (with Hernán Cortés), who worked with many 16th-century settlements and shipwrecks alo ...
.
His small body of troops arrived in June. He guarded the site against looters from the Spanish settlements of Tampico and Pánuco until the salvage expedition arrived, and remained during the salvage operation from 23 July to 12 September.
The main salvage crew dispatched from Vera Cruz to try to recover the treasure was under García de Escalante Alvarado (a nephew of
Pedro de Alvarado
Pedro de Alvarado (; c. 1485 – 4 July 1541) was a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala.Lovell, Lutz and Swezey 1984, p. 461. He participated in the conquest of Cuba, in Juan de Grijalva's exploration of the coasts of the Yucatá ...
).
Alvarado bought six vessels to recover the
Emperor Charles V
Charles V, french: Charles Quint, it, Carlo V, nl, Karel V, ca, Carles V, la, Carolus V (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain ( Castile and Aragon) ...
's coin and bullion, and the other cargo.
There were 102 sailors, including eleven Spanish divers.
The masts of ''San Esteban'' could still be seen.
Salvage of ''San Esteban'' began at once. She had sunk in just of water, so could be thoroughly explored.
The salvage team dragged a chain along the bottom to find the two other ships.
''Santa Maria de Yciar'' was located on 20 August. Her hull had split and the cargo was scattered around the wreck.
Alvarado recovered over of silver as well as 22,000 pesos.
The salvage crew also recovered personal items and cargo.
This included resin,
cochineal
The cochineal ( , ; ''Dactylopius coccus'') is a scale insect in the suborder Sternorrhyncha, from which the natural dye carmine is derived. A primarily sessility (motility), sessile parasitism, parasite native to tropical and subtropical Sout ...
, sugar, wood and hides.
The salvage crew found about 41% of the total value of the cargo.
of precious metals, coins, jewelry and religious artifacts were lost.
After that the island was rarely visited by Europeans for the next 200 years.
20th century
Rediscovery and ''Espíritu Santo'' excavations
![MansfieldCut](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/MansfieldCut.JPG)
The 1554 wrecks were well documented and were shown on maps from 1646.
Treasure hunters who knew of them and beachcombers searching at random found traces of Spanish coins and fragments of ships on the Padre Island beaches throughout the 20th century.
The search intensified after dredgers accidentally destroyed ''Santa Maria de Yciar'' late in the 1950s.
In the summer of 1964 Vida Lee Connor found ''Espíritu Santo'' while scuba diving. She spent two years exploring her discovery before marking it with buoys and announcing the find. When she went back to the site later she found a private diving party taking items from the wreck.
This was the start of a major debate about antiquities found in Texas.
Platoro, Ltd., a private company, began to excavate ''Espíritu Santo'' wreck in late 1967.
They found about 500 objects, including a gold bar, jewelry, and equipment used for navigation.
Platoro's exploration and retrieval of objects from the site started a long-running argument with the state of Texas about ownership of the artifacts.
It also triggered the Texas legislature to pass the Antiquities Code in 1969 to prevent unauthorized excavation of future finds.
In 1960, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that all territory up to from the Texas coastline was the property of the state of Texas.
On this basis, due to a concern that the excavation should be conducted using scientific archaeological methods, and since this was the oldest shipwreck site to be examined in the
Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the term We ...
, the state launched a suit against Platoro.
The Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory (TARL) at the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
received the objects for study in the interim. There was a lengthy argument in the courts over state versus federal jurisdiction and compensation to Platoro.
The outcome was that Platoro was offered a cash settlement of $313,000.
The state of Texas was acknowledged to be the custodian of the artifacts that had been recovered.
The Antiquities Conservation Facility (ACF) was set up at TARL to study the material found by Platoro. The ACF extended principles and approaches developed by TARL to cover shipwreck conservation and analysis. This created the basis for future marine archaeology in Texas. After the ACF was closed these principles were carried forward in the Conservation Research Laboratory at
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...
.
''San Esteban'' excavation
![Spanish coin found at Padre Island National Seashore](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Spanish_coin_found_at_Padre_Island_National_Seashore.jpg)
In 1970, the Texas Antiquities Committee commissioned the Institute of Underwater Research to survey about of the coast over a one-month period.
The institute found ''San Esteban'' during the survey.
Where the magnetometer indicated that iron was present, they used a "blower" to make a vertical jet of water that blew a layer of sand and shell away from the
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
clay bottom and exposed the artifacts of the wreck.
The Antiquities Committee arranged for the site of the ''San Esteban'' to be excavated in the summer of 1972, with follow-up work in the summers of 1973 and 1975.
They focused on this wreck, since it had not been disturbed.
Most of the ship's wooden hull was lost, but the layout of the ship could be seen from the placement of the anchors, guns and fasteners.
Corrosion and chemical interactions had melded many of the metal artifacts into conglomerates.
One of these weighed more than two tons and was more than in length.
It held two anchors, a hooped barrel gun of wrought-iron, and various other objects.
The divers made careful maps of the material they recovered, but had no way of determining on the spot what was inside the metal conglomerates encrusted by marine growth.
The divers recovered some of the conglomerates and some individual artifacts in 1972.
The next year they recovered the rest of the large conglomerates, many smaller conglomerates and individual artifacts.
In all they brought up of artifacts in 1972–73.
The Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory received all the artifacts for analysis.
Each encrusted conglomerate of concreted material was carefully documented with photographs, radiographs where practical, and detailed conservation records.
The researchers used hammers, chisels and small pneumatic chisels to break open the conglomerates.
They then subjected the metal and wood objects to complex and time-consuming processes to remove the products of corrosion and preserve them from future degradation.
There had been a suspicion that Platoro had excavated from the ''San Esteban'' as well as the ''Espíritu Santo'', but the analysis of the ''San Esteban'' artifacts made it clear that the Platoro collection all came from ''Espíritu Santo''.
![Astrolabes, coins, and other objects recovered from the Padre Island shipwrecks of April, 1554](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Astrolabes%2C_coins%2C_and_other_objects_recovered_from_the_Padre_Island_shipwrecks_of_April%2C_1554.gif)
The ''San Esteban'' findings included three broken anchors and a wrought iron swivel gun that was also broken and unusable. The broken objects may have been kept so they could later be repaired, or may have just been used for ballast. There were four anchors in working condition.
The anchors were made of wrought iron.
Other finds included ship's fittings, tools and a cannon made by welding together iron bars.
This gun and the wrought iron guns were by now obsolete in Europe, but presumably considered sufficient for the New World.
The divers recovered the stern end of the keel and a portion of the sternpost. The stern/keel section of the ''San Esteban'' is similar to other wrecks of the period, and contributes to a view of ship construction at the time. Experts have estimated that the ship was long and displaced . The planks were thick.
Miscellaneous finds included a brass buckle, shards of glass and olive pits. Several conglomerates held the exoskeletons of cockroaches, providing the first evidence of shipment of these insects between Europe and the Americas. Personal possessions included a gold crucifix, pins, silver thimbles and silver
reale Reale is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Damien Reale (born 1981), Irish hurler
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*Giovanni Reale ( ...
coins. The salvage team also found silver and gold bullion.
Some locally-made items included prismatic
obsidian
Obsidian () is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock.
Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements s ...
blades and a polished nodule of
iron pyrite
The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral.
Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue giv ...
for use as a mirror. Other items included weapons and instruments for navigation. A mariner's
astrolabe
An astrolabe ( grc, ἀστρολάβος ; ar, ٱلأَسْطُرلاب ; persian, ستارهیاب ) is an ancient astronomical instrument that was a handheld model of the universe. Its various functions also make it an elaborate inclin ...
is the oldest such instrument with a confirmed date. Pewter objects from England were found and stoneware from
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
, Germany. In the end about 1,500 artifacts were retrieved from the ''San Esteban'', 85% of them from the conglomerates.
Preservation and display
On 21 January 1974, the National Park Service listed the three wrecks as the "
Mansfield Cut Underwater Archeological District
The Mansfield Cut Underwater Archeological District is an area located near the city of Port Mansfield, Texas, United States, in the waters off Kenedy County, Texas, Kenedy County and Willacy County, Texas. Located offshore in the Gulf of Mexi ...
" in the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
.
The Texas Antiquities Committee of the State of Texas owns the ''San Esteban'' wreck. It is managed by the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
.
The National Register lists the site as part of an archaeological district of national significance.
The Texas Antiquities Committee sponsored a travelling exhibition of the finds from the 1554 wreck from 1977 to 1981, which visited 20 museums across Texas. The exhibition showed an anchor, cannons and the remaining parts of the keel and stern post. Display cases held explanatory text, illustrations and artifacts.
The recovered objects found a permanent home at the
Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History
The Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History is a science and history museum in Corpus Christi, Texas, near Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge
The Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge is a through arch bridge located in Corpus Christi, Texas which carries ...
. An extension to the museum opened in May 1990 to house the ''Shipwreck!'' exhibition.
References
Notes
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{{DEFAULTSORT:San Esteban
Age of Sail merchant ships of Spain
16th-century ships
Shipwrecks of the Texas coast
Shipwrecks on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas