AARC - what is the source of that dowry manifest? The only reference I can find is the following that Gene Birdsong posted 5 or 6 years ago.
"In 1715, on the verge of bankruptcy and vulnerable to enemy attack following Queen Anne’s War, King Philip V of Spain had few options but to concede to a political marriage. Elisabeth Farnese, the wealthy Duchess of Parma, agreed to marry Philip, provided that he furnish her with a dowry of “ornaments” of unmatched value and beauty. The desperate king commissioned an extraordinary collection of jewels. Among them: a gem-encrusted golden carriage pulled by a team of gilded silver horses, two jade hummingbirds with wings of emeralds and pearls, a 74-carat emerald ring set in gold, several chests of giant emeralds (some the size of limes), a jewel-studded golden pine cone filled with pearls, a diamond-and-ruby-studded golden crucifix, and a heart crafted of 130 flawless pearls the size of large marbles.
These rare items were to be brought to Spain by the king’s fleet in the Americas, but—with pirates, privateers and treacherous tropical storms interfering—only one in three ships ever made it back to Europe. Reportedly, the sea was eerily calm when the sun rose over Havana Harbor on July 24, 1715. Even the birds were quiet as the king’s convoy of 12 ships was loaded with 300 massive treasure chests, including the 62 containing Elisabeth’s dowry.
Also on board were bronze cannons and other military equipment stuffed with the captain’s secret horde of gold, silver and emeralds, carefully concealed in hopes of eluding the king’s vigilant tax collectors. But as the fleet rounded the Florida peninsula near modern-day Sebastian, a devastating hurricane cast crew and treasure to the bottom of the sea.
Sympathetic to the loss of life, Elisabeth married Philip anyway. The 300 chests of treasure, as well as the jewel-stuffed cannons and military equipment, remain on the ocean floor, where treasure hunters have been searching for them ever since.
Today, the 62 chests containing Queen Anne’s Jewels alone are valued at $900 million. "
