Episode 19: AJV Archaeology No. 19 - Spanish Treasure Fleets Part III: The 1622 Spanish Treasure Galleon in Dry Tortugas National Park

Primary source documents suggest seven to nine Spanish vessels wrecked in the Lower Florida Keys on 6 September 1622. Over the past 400 years, only treasure hunters have located three vessels of the doomed fleet. Historical Documents point to three other shipwrecks in modern Dry Tortugas National Park. 

NPS Underwater Archaeologists and historians study the fleet’s disaster, contemporary salvage, and protect the delicate nature of the shipwrecks in Dry Tortugas National Park. Since underwater archaeology began in Dry Tortugas National Park (then Fort Jefferson National Monument) in 1971, many archaeologists led investigations to find the 650-ton galleon Nuestra Señora del Rosario, a patache (which carried messages between the treasure galleons), and the Portuguese frigate Nuestra Señora del Rosario in the Dry Tortugas. 

Not only were the ships salvaged in 1623, but the wooden remains were burned to make it easier for the Spanish to recover all the bronze cannons and precious metal in the holds of the ships. Therefore, the only things that remain from these shipwrecks aren’t the wood, silver, or even iron fasteners, but only a few ballast stones and an assemblage of wrought-iron, breech-loading swivel guns. Archeologists have never located this type of swivel gun in a dateable context—besides a single gun La Belle (1686), which was wrecked in Matagorda Bay, Texas.  

These guns are dated to 1450-1550 in European museums. The grouping of this style of swivel gun in Dry Tortugas demonstrates how older, cheaply-made guns crafted around the time of the Spanish Armada (1588) armed the rails of treasure galleons in 1622 because of a decline in the Spanish economy. Without archaeology, we would never know the aspects of history that slip into the sea.