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The ''Nossa Senhora dos Mártires'' was a cargo ship that wrecked in 1606 at the mouth of the River Tagus, near Lisbon, Portugal, and subsequently excavated between 1996 and 2001. The ship had been seeking safer anchorage in the Tagus during strong winds, but she struck a submerged rock and went down close to shore with no loss of life. Also known as The Pepper Wreck, it is so called because its major cargo at the time was peppercorns of black pepper, '' Piper nigrum'', which carpeted the river and were harvested along with the fittings and other cargo by the population.
The Museu Nacional de Arqueologia identified the debris on the bottom in 1993 and designated the site as São Julião da Barra 2 (SJB2). The ship was of a type called the " ''nau''", a cargo vessel, used as an Indiaman. Constructed in 1605 in the Ribeira das Naus, the royal shipyard in Lisbon, it set sail under captain Manuel Barreto in that year as part of an armada, or convoy, consisting of ten ships: four
The ''Nossa Senhora dos Mártires'' was a cargo ship that wrecked in 1606 at the mouth of the River Tagus, near Lisbon, Portugal, and subsequently excavated between 1996 and 2001. The ship had been seeking safer anchorage in the Tagus during strong winds, but she struck a submerged rock and went down close to shore with no loss of life. Also known as The Pepper Wreck, it is so called because its major cargo at the time was peppercorns of black pepper, '' Piper nigrum'', which carpeted the river and were harvested along with the fittings and other cargo by the population.
The Museu Nacional de Arqueologia identified the debris on the bottom in 1993 and designated the site as São Julião da Barra 2 (SJB2). The ship was of a type called the " ''nau''", a cargo vessel, used as an Indiaman. Constructed in 1605 in the Ribeira das Naus, the royal shipyard in Lisbon, it set sail under captain Manuel Barreto in that year as part of an armada, or convoy, consisting of ten ships: four galleon
Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships developed in Spain and Portugal.
They were first used as armed cargo carriers by Europe, Europeans from the 16th to 18th centuries during the Age of Sail, and they were the principal vessels dr ...
s and six naus, sent out by the Casa da Índia, a government trade organization,Castro (2005) page 13. to Goa
Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...
, then under Dutch blockade. After loading a cargo of pepper, classified by the government along with all spice
In the culinary arts, a spice is any seed, fruit, root, Bark (botany), bark, or other plant substance in a form primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of pl ...
s as ''drogas'' ("drugs", literally meaning "dry goods") it completed the return voyage and anchored off the mouth of the Tagus. A strong wind caused some other ships to pull anchor, inspiring their captains to move further into the river. Seeking to follow their example, the ''Nossa Senhora dos Mártires'' struck a rock and went down suddenly on 14 September 1606. Although scanty, the hull remains have preserved carpenters marks that allowed a tentative reconstruction of the ship's hull.
Until the 2008 discovery of the '' Bom Jesus'' shipwreck near Oranjemund in Namibia, this shipwreck
A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. It results from the event of ''shipwrecking'', which may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately thre ...
was the only known Portuguese Indiaman from the 16th and early 17th centuries not destroyed by treasure hunters.
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Bibliography
*External links
* Age of Sail ships of Portugal Shipwrecks of Portugal Maritime incidents in 1606 Colonial Kerala 17th century in Portugal 17th-century ships {{ship-stub