1715 DOCUMENTS (REAL 8, ETC.)-CONTINUED

ASSESSMENT OF ABOVE BY JH

After reading the above one wonders how anyone, except perhaps an

archaeologist, could ever doubt which wreck was the Capitana of

Ubilla and which was the Almiranta. Salmon plainly states that

he is in 27d 50m and, further, that all the wrecks are between

this latitude and 27d 15m which is at Lima's site. Lima says his

is the furthest to the south. Further, Salmon states that the

Capitana wrecked four hours and two leagues before the Almiranta,

meaning they knew the approximate location of the Capitana, but

not the exact spot at that early date in August.

All of the other evidence pretty much sums up which is which by

the physical makeup of the two wreck sites. For example, the

Capitana was smashed into many pieces and it's ballast lies in 2

brazas of water. This certainly isn't the Cabin site. On the

other hand, the ballast of Salmon's ship was in four brazas (some

say 3 and 3 1(2) and this is about the depth of the ballast off

the Cabin site - 20 to 22 feet.

Early on, the survivors wrote that they knew where all but 3 of

their ships had wrecked. They were unsure of the fate of

Echeverz Patache, the French Prize and the Grifon. From this it

is fairly clear that the Concepcion was the French Prize. Later,

it turns out the Concepcion wrecked up near the Cape and

thereafter they refer to the spread between the wrecks as about

15 or 16 leagues. Prior to that point they always said 10

leagues (27d 50m to 27d 15m, which is 35 nautical miles or about

10 Spanish leagues).

It seems quite clear to me that, in spite of Romans and other

evidence, the area of Lima is off St Lucie Inlet somewhere and

the Patache is off Jenson's Beach area. Probably the Douglas Park

site is Ubilla's Fragatilla. Who else would have had more

opportunity to smuggle gold than he? Besides, the inspectors

back in Cadiz (Visitadores) would spend a lot more time on his

Capitana than on a small ship such as the Fragatilla.

The San Miguel is probably up near Fernandina Beach or Mayport

area. Ross Hutchison says a Black shrimper found a ballast pile

by dragging his net into it about 1 1/2 miles off Mayport.

However, it is doubtful that this ship had more on it than a lot

of tobacco and perhaps some small amounts of personal money. It

would be interesting to find but not really worth a lot of effort

if one wants to make money in this business.

As to the location of the Concepcion ...? This might be a very

worthy target, as quite a bit of treasure was placed on it. The

seven survivors who testified in St Augustine seem to indicate

they were wrecked near the shallows off the Cape itself, but they

may have just drifted through here in the 3 days they floated

around on the hatch cover before reaching shore. If the ship did

come apart, say, about three miles north of Sebastian Inlet this

would go along way toward explaining the coins which show up on

the beach from Chuck's Steak House to Melbourne Beach.

Echeverz Capitana and Almiranta are probably where everyone

thinks they are off Rio Mar and Sandy Point, respectively. The

small ship nicknamed La Popa, may have been on Sandy Point as

well, since a small pile of ballast has been reported near the

beach on the north side of the point.

It is fairly certain that Echeverz' Capitana is the Rio Mar site

and that it was the Hampton Court. Lord Hamilton stated as much

in 1715 when the ships were in Havana Harbor. Gene Lyon says he

traced the Capitana of Echeverz back to where it was built in

Spain, but this is pretty good circumstantial evidence to the

contrary. Who knows? Or cares? See below for Hampton Court

data.

85. (Continued)

"...By late advises from the Havana I am told the

Galleons from Vera Cruz were daily expected there in order to

join two Spanish ships of war, one of which was the Hampton

Court, who are said to have great treasures on board for old

Spain ....

86. National Maritime Museum - Page five from the Dimension book

“B".

Hampton Court - Length of gun deck 150 feet 6 inches;

length of keel 125 feet 6 inches; Beam 40 feet one inch; Depth of

Draft 17 feet 3 inches; burden 1072 tons; carried 70 guns;.

captured by the Dunkirk Squadron (French) in 1707.

Potter also states that the Capitana of Echeverz is the Hampton

Court. (See 1715DOCS.SDY).