PAGE 76.

AMOUNTS RECOVERED FROM WRECKS

In many cases the documents do not disclose from which wrecks

various amounts of treasure were recovered, and it is difficult

to determine in many cases if a wreck was completely or only

partially salvaged.

1. Lima wrote on 30 AUG 1715 that the Almiranta of Ubilla was

just discovered and they recovered two chests of silver from her.

2. Armenta wrote from Ayz on 2 Sept 1715 that they had recovered

147 closed chests and 80 to 90 thousand pesos in loose silver

from the Almiranta. The Capitana was not discovered as yet.

3. Salmon wrote on 9 Sept 1715 from Ayz stating that he was

sending 700,000 pesos to Havana. The "C" was not discovered yet,

so all or most would have been recovered from Ubilla's Almiranta.

4. Armenta wrote on 9 Sept 1715 from Ayz that the total amount

recovered from Ubilla's "A" numbered over 400 chests. Work not

started on "C" yet.

5. Fernandez in Ayz wrote on 10 Sept 1715 that 450 chests of

silver had been recovered from Ubilla's "A" and that the "C" was

not yet located.

6. Salmon in Ayz wrote on 20 Sept 1715 that from both the "C" &

"A" they had already recovered a total of 1,450 chests containing

3,000 pesos each. This would amount to a total of 4,350,000

pesos, which also included a few silver bars.. Of this amount

1,400,000 pesos had already been sent to Havana.

7. Palacio in Havana on 28 Sept 1715 wrote that 170 chests of

silver salvaged from Ubilla's "A" was already stored in Havana.

This conflicts with the above statement made by Salmon, as this

was only about 1/3rd the amount he sent to Havana.

8. Casa Torres in Havana on 12 Oct 1715 wrote, "The diving

operations have been so successful that all has been recovered

from the Almiranta except 210 chests (means 780 chests out of 990

have been picked up) and 400 from the Capitana (900 out of

1,300)."

8.(Continued)

Yet later in this letter Torres states that only 758 chests were

recovered from the Capitana. Of those recovered, 700 chests are

already in Havana.

PAGE 77.

AMOUNTS RECOVERED FROM WRECKS - TWO

9. Casa Torres in Havana on 18 Oct 1715 states that a total of

940 chests of silver had been recovered from the Capitana of

Ubilla.

10. Cassano y Guzman in Havana on 21 Oct 1715 wrote, "At this

time we have under safe storage about 3 millions from all the

shipwrecks and are now waiting for the return of six schooners

which will bring 1,800,000 pesos, which have been guarded on

shore at Palmar de Ayz up to now."

11. Casa Torres in Havana on 26 Oct 1715 stated that they now

have 1,487,000 pesos safe-guarded in Havana. Yet Guzman, above,

states they have twice that amount in Havana. (I suspect what we

have is a mix up. in dates or delay in mail delivery of some sort-

JH).

12. Castro in Havana on 30 Oct 1715 stated that he received a

letter from his brother at Ayz dated 10 Oct 1715 telling that he

is in charge of the salvage operation and that a total of 949

chests of silver were recovered from the Capitana and 600 chests

from the Almiranta.

13. Viceroy Linares in Mexico City on 29 Nov 1715 wrote the King

stating that, "..the only fortunate thing about this disaster is

the recovery of the treasure, that in the wrecks of the Capitana

and Almiranta of the Flota they have been able to recover to

date, so they tell me, five million pesos. Not only did they

recover the Royal treasure, but also the registered cargoes from

one another of the other ships, including that from the ship of

Miguel de Lima." He also believes that they have salvaged the

wreck of Ubilla's Patache.

14. King to Torres on 29 Jan 1716 writes that in his letter of

30 Sept 1715 Torres stated that 2,100,000 pesos had been

recovered off Ubilla's Almiranta.

15. Bolero in Cadiz on 1 Mar 1716 wrote that, "186 chests of the

990 on the Almiranta were recovered (but this is obviously an

error) and 940 of the 1,300 on the Capitana have been

recovered.

16. An official in Sevilla on 3 Mar 1716 wrote that Armenta had

written on 30 Oct 1715 stating they had recovered about 5 million

pesos more or less and that 3 million of this amount had been

sent to Havana at that time.

17. Salmon in Havana wrote on 22 Mar 1716 that they had

recovered all of the Royal treasure and part of the private

treasure, altogether valued at 5,200,000 pesos.

18. King to Council of the Indies on 16 June 1716 states that

news from a vessel which left Havana on 28 March 1716 reveals

that 1,005 chest had been recovered from the Capitana and 736

chests from the Almiranta, not counting the value of the gold or

worked silver recovered. All had been taken to Havana and Lima's

ship had been totally salvaged,

PAGE 78.

19. In June of 1716 the two ships of Chacon carried the

following amounts of treasure, all of which had been recovered

from the wrecks, to Spain. Total of 1169 chests, averaging 3,000

pesos to the chest, plus a few bars of silver and some small

sacks of silver coins. The total value of the silver coins sent

back was 3,677,994 pesos.

20. Mention made on 23 Aug 1716 that Chacon's two ships left

Havana on July 7th with the New Spain Flota of Pintado and they

brought back 1,400,000 pesos belonging to the King and 3,000,000

pesos belonging to private persons.

21. Armenta aboard the Capitana of Pintado in sight of Cadiz

writes on 23 Aug 1716 that the divers recovered 200,000 pesos

which English privateers captured. The Spanish continued diving

and recovered another 120,313 pesos, but then ceased diving

operations and returned to Havana, claiming that the amounts they

were recovering were not sufficient to compensate for the high

costs of protecting the sites.

22. document only dated 1716 stated in Contratacion 4927 that

Chacon's two ships brought back from Havana the following amounts

of treasure salvaged from the wrecks: 1,381,226 pesos for the

King ano 3,659,940 pesos for private persons. This would amount

to a total of 5,041,166 pesos.

We have no further documents stating that the Spanish

attempted any further salvage on the site (I do - JH), but we do

have a few scattered references that the English carried on small

scale salvage attempts as late as 1720. However, we have no idea

of what they recovered.

If we add the 200,000 pesos robbed by the Jamaican pirates to

the 5,041,166 carried back by Chacon, we arrive at a total of

5,241,166 pesos as the minimum amount recovered. Added to would

be the treasures recovered by the English that robbed the

survivors of the wrecks, and by the salvors themselves. The

total amount of known treasure was 6,388,020 pesos in Ubilla's

Flota and 98,046 pesos in Echeverz' Squadron for a grand total of

6,486,066 pesos, of this amount we deduct the amount known to

have been salvaged and the unsalvaged amount is 1,244,900

(excluding what was robbed, etc.).

It should also be noted that the amount of registered gold

carried on any of the ships was like a drop in the bucket when

compared to the silver.

NOTE BY JH: Unfortunately, the work done by Dr. Farriss, J.M.

Rodriquez, Jr., or Lou Ullian, referenced in this work, was not

available when I put this all together.