Spanish galleon wreckage found?

[jeff k]

Spanish galleon wreckage found?
STEVE LYTTLE

Divers found an object underwater Wednesday that might be the wreckage of a 500-year-old Spanish ship, South Carolina officials say.

The ship was a lead vessel in an expedition headed by the first European explorer of South Carolina -- and the first European possibly to have landed along the North Carolina coast.

Underwater archaeologists found an object, perhaps 100 feet long, buried under sand in water near South Island, off Georgetown County.

The discovery was announced by Jim Spirek, of the S.C. Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology. It was reported in today's editions of the Myrtle Beach Sun-News.

According to the Sun-News, the object was discovered about noon Wednesday. Divers plan to return to the site in September, to look for additional items.

Spirek told the Sun-News that the object could be part of the wreckage from the Chorruca, a Spanish galleon that sank in 1526 in Winyah Bay. The Chorruca was a lead vessel in the expedition headed by Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon, a conquistador born in 1475 in Toledo, Spain.

De Ayllon had settled on the island of Hispaniola (the island where today's Dominican Republic and Haiti are located) and was a successful business owner there. In 1523, he was asked by King Charles I of Spain to look for a route from the Atlantic Ocean through the newly discovered American continent to the Pacific Ocean.

De Ayllon tried to find such a passage along the Carolinas coast and is thought to have landed in the Cape Fear area. He also is credited as being the first European to discover Chesapeake Bay.

In 1526, he headed an expedition of 600 colonists hoping to begin life on the South Carolina coast.

During that expedition, the Chorruca sank. The colony did not last long. There was a fight over leadership, during which African slaves reportedly escaped and joined nearby Native American tribes.

A fever epidemic broke out, killing de Ayllon and many others.

About 150 survivors gave up the effort in late 1526 and returned to Hispaniola.

Divers from the South Carolina agency are involved in a major effort along the coast to locate the wreckage of old ships.

 

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[xXx]

Great story, huh.
I was talking with a local boater today and he told me about it. I hadn't heard anything of it yet. (Always a day late and a dollar short).
He did say that they dove it today and brought up several tools, and assumes that is what the ship was transporting.
But, he's just a local fisherman. They tend to make up their own stories with only a wee bit of truth, just like "some" treasure magazines.
Wish I had already put a search boat in the water and found it first. But, after already having dealt with the South Carolina Institute of Archaeolology on one project I don't think they would have let me have anything to do with it anyway. They aren't exactly a "user-friendly" bunch and I feel that they have really stabbed me in the back.
Just my opinion.
xXx

 

[rgecy]

I would like to make a request that you guys edit this post to a less inflamatory tone!

The State of South Carolina has put a lot of time, money and research into this project. This is not some treasure laden galleon they are trying to find, it is a very historically significant wreck and could greatly impact our knowledge of spanish shipping and settlement . I know xXx had a bad experience with the State, but it was on a project that was deemed to be a land site and not underwater. I would have to applaude the efforts made by SCIAA. They are underfunded and undermanned!

I know xXx feels some distain for how things were handled, but I don't think others need to chime in and make derogatory remarks that do not pertain to the facts. Those guys do monitor these sites and I only hope they can see our point of view as well.

Thanks,

Robert in SC

 

[xXx]

Robert, When I met with the Budget and Control Board they did have "C.A." sit in on the meeting. After spending a year trying to help me get my project pushed through and acting like my best friend, he told me to my face that had this project been under water, like we first thought, he would NOT have given me permission to persue it. He only said this because we were sitting at a board room table in the State House Building in front of his other land archaeologist peers, the head of the Budget & Control Board, and the State Attorney. When he said he would not have given me permission I fealt the knife dig into my back. This TOTALLY contradicted everything he had gone over with me on the phone. Heck, he even gave me pointers on what information I should give to the Board.
Please don't get me wrong, Robert. I'm not arguing with you at all. I consider you a good friend. I've enjoyed talking with you, and diving with you. I really hope we can pull some of our other projects together as a team with Darren.
I don't put down the work they have done on the Spanish ship in Georgetown at all. I'm sure they have done their homework and will make sure the project is well handled and the artifacts will be well preserved for us later.
Just my aggrivated opinions.
P.S. I have gone back and edited alot of this post. As Robert said, I should use a less inflamatory tone.
xXx

 

[jeff k]

Archeologists and local historians are hopeful that iron objects discovered at the bottom of Winyah Bay are prove to be remnants of a 500-year-old shipwreck that was part of a fleet of ships, carrying Spanish explorers and priests in a failed attempt at establishing the first European settlement in North America at what is now Hobcaw Barony.
They are hopeful, but not yet willing to bet the bank that articles found in shallow water near South Island are part of the fleet that established the lost mission of San Miguel de Guadalupe in 1526. They are not ruling out the fact that the find might be something else entirely.

According to Chris Amer, state underwater archaeologist with the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, who initiated the research project, it is highly unlikely that this find, so early in their studies, is the wreckage for which they have been looking.

“It is usually not that easy and right now we have no idea because we haven’t analyzed the site yet,” Amer said. “We will probably have to keep looking.” These objects could be anything from Civil War era items to present day motors and anchors. He adds, however, that if the wreckage is found either here or at another location in Winyah Bay, it could be very important for tourism in Georgetown County. He says it could be more of an attraction than the Hunley is for Charleston County.

“This could blow the Hunley out of the water,” Amer said. “If the things we find turn out to be from a 16th century wreck, this would turn into a real project with protection of the site and gathering of data.” The discovery came last week when archeologists found an underwater site that included a large buried iron object about 100-feet long and many smaller iron objects scattered throughout the area. There is some speculation that the items at this site could be the wreckage of the Spanish galleon “Chorruca,” which carried passengers, cargo and equipment for the Spanish settlement.
The “Chorruca,” according to Lee Brockington, senior interpreter for Hobcaw Barony, was part of a fleet of ships led by Spanish explorer Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon. He led the group to this area in the early 1500s, according to studies by Paul Quattlebaum and others who examined archival naval records and maps and ships logs.

“Since about 1950, those interested in history have been intrigued by the research done by Paul Quattlebaum and others suggesting that the 1526 settlement may have actually occurred on the eastern shore of Winyah Bay, which is now part of Hobcaw Barony,” Brockington said.

“In his book titled ‘The Land Chicora,’ Quattlebaum shared his theory that the expedition carrying men, women, slaves and a Dominican Fryer entered Cape Fear, traveled down what is today the Grand Strand and arrived at the mouth of a large bay, which he and others decided, according to research, had to be Winyah Bay.”

What is significant about this settlement was that it was not only the first European settlement in North America, but it was the first evidence of a Catholic mission in North America, Brockington said.

Several years ago an archaeology team led by the late Jim Michie of Coastal Carolina University did an extensive search to pin down the location of the lost mission that would have made the Carolinas a part of the Spanish Empire years before the first English settlement. But that venture failed to turn up any evidence of an early Spanish presence. Michie may have been looking in the wrong place or it might be that too many hurricanes over a period of nearly 500 years simply washed away all evidence.

Amer said the first step archaeologists will take in the South Island find is to collect soil samples from above the large buried object. Critical data was lost during the recovery of the Hunley when scientists did not study soil samples on top of the wreckage, Amer said.

Archaeologists will then they will use slide-scan sonar, which will be analyzed by a computer to determine the exact shape and size of the object. Also, interesting smaller objects, such as cannon balls, may be brought up to the surface for further study. He noted that scientists only disturb objects that they find important and usually replace objects because they will deteriorate after being in saltwater for so long.

Brockington said she is interested to see the outcome of the findings in this research project. She feels that at least it is promising that answers will be uncovered some time in the future.

“To me, what is fascinating is that the technology will help us answer these questions as well as giving us better ways to analyze the data scientists collect,” she said. “There is so much history in South Carolina and I think this adds a great deal to the under-appreciated history of Georgetown County.”

 

[BUCCANEER]

I would like to make a request that you guys edit this post to a less inflamatory tone!

The State of South Carolina has put a lot of time, money and research into this project. This is not some treasure laden galleon they are trying to find, it is a very historically significant wreck and could greatly impact our knowledge of spanish shipping and settlement . I know xXx had a bad experience with the State, but it was on a project that was deemed to be a land site and not underwater. I would have to applaude the efforts made by SCIAA. They are underfunded and undermanned!

I know xXx feels some distain for how things were handled, but I don't think others need to chime in and make derogatory remarks that do not pertain to the facts. Those guys do monitor these sites and I only hope they can see our point of view as well.

Thanks,

Robert in SC

 

[jeff k]

Lost ship holds key to colony mystery
By MIKE TONER
Cox News Service
Monday, September 18, 2006

GEORGETOWN, S.C. — Two miles off a deserted beach, the research vessel C-Hawk, its course plotted by satellite navigation signals, makes a 180-degree turn and heads back the way it came.

One mile and it will turn again, recording the ocean floor's magnetic profile as systematically as if it were a tractor plowing a field.

In the past month, the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology research vessel has surveyed 6 square miles of the ocean bottom outside the mouth of Winyah Bay, searching for the 500-year old flagship of the expedition that established America's first colony — on the Georgia coast.

"If the Spanish had this kind of navigation gear in the 16th century, we probably wouldn't be out here looking for this ship now," grins archaeologist Jim Spirek, looking up from the computer screen in the cabin of the C-Hawk.

In August 1526, as Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon's fleet of six ships plied these waters, depths were determined by dangling a lead weight overboard at the end of a line. The method had its limitations. Ayllon's flagship ran aground — and the first European effort to colonize the mainland of North America began to go horribly awry.

American history brims with accounts of Jamestown, Plymouth Rock and Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony of Roanoke. But there isn't much said about Ayllon's effort to establish a colony of 600 people nearly a century earlier.

One reason is that the colony, San Miguel de Gualdape, was an abject failure. The other is that no trace has ever been found of Ayllon's initial landing on the Carolina coast or the short-lived colony he established later in Georgia.

Christopher Amer, South Carolina's state underwater archaeologist, hopes to change that. Other archaeologists have looked for the ephemeral remains of the failed Georgia colony, which is thought to have been located somewhere in the vicinity of Sapelo Sound, south of Savannah, and found nothing.

Amer is betting that sea floor sediments, which would have quickly buried the wreck, have preserved Ayllon's ill-fated Chorruca and its cargo.

Ayllon's "tubby little vessel," a wide-beamed class of ship that Amer says was known for "sailing like a truck," was the Mayflower of its time.

"This was the earliest known shipwreck in North America," he says. "It carried a complete toolkit for starting a colony in a strange land — containers of food, tools, weapons, everything they needed. If the ship is buried in sediment, these things can last a long time. It won't be easy to find, but that's what makes it exciting."

Amer has no illusions of instant success. This summer's initial four weeks of surveying with the C-Hawk's torpedo-shaped magnetometer — an instrument that detects masses of iron or steel — have yielded five "interesting" targets.

But magnetic readings can't distinguish between a rusty refrigerator and a 16th-century Spanish anchor. They also don't reveal whether the object is lying on the seabed or buried beneath thick sediment. To find out, Amer and his team will return to the most promising targets this month, use side scan sonar to examine them and then don wet suits to investigate firsthand.

"There are lots of shipwrecks in the area, including at least three Civil War blockade runners. But we believe there weren't any other 16th-century Spanish shipwrecks, so if we find any artifacts from that period, it will be pretty interesting. If we don't find anything, we'll keep looking."

The historical accounts that Amer used to narrow his search to 45 square miles of ocean off the entrance to Winyah Bay are a frustrating blend of ambiguity, supposition and incomplete data.

History duly records that Ayllon left Hispaniola, the island now shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, in July 1526 and headed for North America with six ships carrying 600 men, women and children, including doctors, clergymen, sailors and slaves.

In addition to 100 horses and livestock, the ships carried stores of corn, bread and olive oil. Ayllon attempted his initial landing about 10 miles north of what he had, on a previous reconnaissance of the area, named "the River Jordan" on Aug. 9, 1526.

All hands survived the loss of his flagship, suggesting that it wasn't far offshore, but the colonists quickly concluded that the location was unsuitable for a colony.

Ayllon had the colonists build a vessel to replace his flagship and then sent the women, children and sick south while he led the remaining men on a grueling overland march that ended with the two groups reconvening somewhere on the Georgia coast. There, in September 1526, Spain founded the first, albeit short-lived, colony in the New World.

It didn't last long. By mid-November, more than half the colonists, including Ayllon, were dead of disease, starvation and Indian attacks.

The survivors called it quits, burned the settlement and departed for Hispanola. En route, the ships were struck by a late-season hurricane and only 150 people returned. Maps of North America would continue for some time to refer to the Southeast as "the land of Ayllon."

But the colony's location has intrigued and baffled archaeologists for years.

Until recently, historians thought the initial landing occurred somewhere near Cape Fear, N.C., about 100 miles north of where Amer is searching.

But new translations of a Spanish document called the Chaves Rutter — a compilation of information and geographic descriptions from pilots who sailed along the Atlantic coast in the 16th century — convinced later historians otherwise.

"The Santee River has the highest probability of being the River Jordan, and Winyah Bay is the most likely location where Ayllon's ship was lost," says Amer. "We may be looking for a needle in a haystack, but I think we are in the right haystack."

There are abundant shoals outside the entrance to Winyah Bay that could easily have snagged Ayllon's ship, which had a draft of about 15 feet.

But Amer says the search for Ayllon's ship won't be as simple as checking out every bump on the ocean floor that's 15 feet deep or less. Sea level has risen nearly 5 feet since Ayllon's time and the shoreline has undergone dramatic changes too.

North Island, the sandy finger of land guarding the northern side of the bay entrance, has advanced as much as four miles to the south in the last 500 years. South Island, across from the entrance, has advanced and retreated several times.

"With all the changes that have occurred, it's possible that the wreck is now buried under those sand dunes," Amer says. "If it's there and it's not in the water, we're going to need a whole new approach to finding it."

The project is funded by the University of South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology and the privately funded Archaeological Research Trust, but Amer is also seeking funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for future survey work in the remaining 39 square miles of the prospective search area.

How long might it take to find America's oldest shipwreck? It's a small ship. And a big ocean.

Amer, who was part of the team that discovered and raised the celebrated Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley in Charleston Harbor, isn't making any promises.

"Let's just say that I'm planning on retiring in 10 years or so," he says.

"And this project might take every one of them."