Jump to content

Treasure Galleon La Nuestra Señora de Atocha, 1620


davos522

Recommended Posts

Model of the Treasure Galleon “La Nuestra Señora de Atocha”, 1620 in the Archives of the Indies in Seville, Spain. No date or scale available—unfortunately my photo of the placard was unreadable—although it looked to be about 1:48. This is the galleon that foundered in a hurricane off the Florida Keys 400 years ago this September, and was found in 1985. The estimated value of her cargo, including gold, silver, and Columbian emeralds, was USD $500,000,000.


Give or take…

1B225557-45DC-4C0F-B91C-9AEB980AE19B.jpeg

3FCBC666-55AB-4909-9AB9-054FFBF92884.jpeg

D487AF1D-CBBF-4781-8C47-650AC7ECC94C.jpeg

DBBB2B91-B50D-42C2-8D94-2EC4520916D0.jpeg

B1006C70-B844-41EB-964D-31D16DDEE373.jpeg

95B0908F-54E5-4693-AAB4-C872D968DC97.jpeg

B7EA5D66-385A-4AA8-A885-69B0D5AB1DC6.jpeg

2B56CDBB-AC71-4EDD-B6D9-D4DE5C11174A.jpeg

74B082ED-8C90-43E9-866A-E7710766F20C.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Okay, call me silly, but I had expected that a "treasure galleon" would look a bit more flashy. But then, it probably wasn't a great idea to attract attention while carrying a fortune aboard.

Chris Coyle
Greer, South Carolina

When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk.
- Tuco

Current builds: Brigantine Phoenix, Hawker Hurricane

Link to comment
Share on other sites

She is indeed a beautiful piece!  I was of the understanding that she carried 24 to 28 cannon and the model shows only 8. The Fisher team recovered 20 bronze cannon but I am not 100% sure they are all from the the Nuestra Senora.  Maybe time to take a ride to the Mel Fisher Museum in Key West for more details.   The model looks like a modern day piece so I wonder when the model was built, and on what design/information it is based? 

Allan

PLEASE take 30 SECONDS and sign up for the epic Nelson/Trafalgar project if you would like to see it made into a TV series.   Click on http://trafalgar.tv   There is no cost other than the 30 seconds of your time.  THANK YOU

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you all. It was a beautiful model indeed, and seemed new. Looked like a lot of dubloons went into all that Swiss pear... Artesania Latina is located just outside Seville; I wonder whether they were involved at all?
 

And Allan, if I read the exhibit signage aright (my Spanish is woefully inadequate) then the Señora was also carrying guns as cargo, which might explain at least part of the discrepancy; and the Wikipedia article contains the following:

 

The Atocha alone carried cargo whose estimates range between $250 and $500 million, including silver from Bolivia, Peru and Mexico, gold and emeralds from Colombia, and pearls from Venezuela, as well as more common goods including worked silverware, tobacco, and bronze cannons.

 

Be interesting to know how accurate the model really is, do they have one at the Fisher museum I wonder?

 

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's a very lengthy archeological pdf paper on the wreck site from the Fisher Museum. Very technical. But there is a model shown on page 104 and it looks completely different. Several interesting drawings of the guns, midship section, etc, follow that.

 

https://www.melfisher.com/Research_Archives/AtochaMargarita2016-2018PermitRenewalReportv2019-01-14_Redacted.pdf

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great read for anyone interested, thanks for posting this.   Definitely need to make plans to drive over for a visit to the museum, the many bars, and maybe do a little fishing as well.😀

 

PLEASE take 30 SECONDS and sign up for the epic Nelson/Trafalgar project if you would like to see it made into a TV series.   Click on http://trafalgar.tv   There is no cost other than the 30 seconds of your time.  THANK YOU

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Frolick, ¡muchas gracias for posting the link to that PDF! Great stuff… much of the exhibit at the Archives of the Indies in Sevilla had to do with the wreck and recovery, and featured some relics and even one of the original underwater search “drones”. One of the recovered cannons can just be glimpsed in the background of my pic of the stern (which somehow got rotated 90° when I uploaded it). 
 

If I’m not mistaken the photo of the model on p 104 is a promo shot from Artesania Latina of their model of the galleon San Francisco II, rather than Nuestra Señora; the authors were apparently just using it to illustrate what a bumpkin/boomkin looked like. But the bottom line is that there were never any contemporary pictures of her, so educated  guesswork is going to figure largely in any reconstruction anyway. 
 

Allan, I hope when you do make it over to Key West you’ll take lots of photos. 
 

Dave

(PS - while you’re there can you cat-nap me one of Hemmingway’s six-toed felines? Always wanted to add one to the menagerie :-))

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...