A shipwreck discovered during excavations off the Spanish port city of Cadiz has proven to be a merchant ship with a prominent fate. The ship from Genoa fell victim to a surprise attack by the British privateer Sir Francis Drake along with parts of the Spanish Armada. The ship was sunk along with its cargo in April 1587 and lay on the seabed covered in sediment for centuries. Only now has the wreck been identified as the “San Giorgio e Sant’Elmo Buonaventura”.
The Bay of Cadiz in southern Spain is a place steeped in history. At the beginning of 1587, dozens of warships from Spain, Portugal and other allied countries gathered there. They formed the basis of the Spanish Armada, the fleet with which the Spanish King Philip II wanted to attack and conquer England in the summer of the same year.
But these war preparations did not remain secret: the English Queen Elizabeth I found out about the gathering armada through spies and decided to launch a preventive attack: The privateer and Vice Admiral Sir Francis Drake, who was in English service, was given the order to sink the ships in the Bay of Cadiz. On April 19, 1587, Drake reached Cadiz with 24 ships and attacked the Spanish fleet. Between 30 and 35 ships were destroyed and sank.
A 16th century shipwreck
Now archaeological research reveals that it wasn’t just warships that fell victim to Francis Drake and his fleet in this famous attack on Cadiz: a Genoese merchant ship was also sunk in this sea battle. Archaeologists led by Renato Gianni Ridella from the University of Genoa and his colleagues discovered this when they examined one of the three shipwrecks discovered off Cadiz around 15 years ago. Underwater archaeologists found the wreckage while examining the seabed ahead of construction work for a new container terminal.
One of the three shipwrecks, provisionally named “Delta II”, lay beneath a layer of sediment around eight meters thick and has been preserved almost intact. “The wreck is around 24 meters long and eight meters wide and has the characteristics of a three-master ship,” report the archaeologists. Initial investigations suggested that it could be a 16th century ship constructed according to Mediterranean shipbuilding traditions. Several bronze cannons from this period also supported this dating. “However, this opened up an enormous range of possibilities: the wreck could have come from a Spanish ship carrying cargo to America, but it could also have been a warship,” explain Ridella and his team.
Bronze cannons from Genoa, carmine from the New World
In order to provide more clarity, the archaeologists examined the “Delta II” wreck and the finds recovered from it in more detail. They discovered that some of the ship’s seven bronze cannons had imprinted inscriptions on them. These revealed that these artillery weapons had been cast by the Giordi family based in Genoa. “This detail provided us with an important chronological reference point,” explain the researchers. Comparison with historical documents revealed that this family supplied some cannons for the Spanish Armada in the second half of the 16th century.
The origin of the cannons suggested that the ship could also have come from Genoa. “However, back then, cannons were often exchanged between ships of different nationalities, so this alone is not enough,” the archaeologists report. “It was therefore necessary to examine the cargo of this shipwreck in more detail.” During dives to the wreck, bones of various farm animals such as cattle, pigs, goats and chickens were also found, as well as numerous clay pots containing pickled olives, capers and spices. “The olives are clearly an Andalusian product and indicate that the Delta II took on board this cargo in Cadiz,” the team explains.
In addition to the goods from Andalusia and the Mediterranean, the ship also had cargo from the New World on board: the archaeologists found in the wreck several wooden barrels with a reddish, dense mass that turned out to be carmine, a red pigment obtained from the cochineal scale insect found in Central and South America. “In the 16th century, the trade in carmine from the New World was enormously important; its economic value in transatlantic transport was only exceeded by silver and gold,” explain Ridella and his colleagues.
In the wrong place at the wrong time
Ridella and his team managed to identify the shipwreck using this information from the armament and cargo, as well as through research into historical documents. The “Delta II” is therefore the Genoese merchant ship “San Giorgio e Sant’Elmo”, also known as “Vassalla piccola”. This was built in 1573 on behalf of Pietro Paolo Vassallo in the Italian city of Portofno and was used on the then common trade routes in the western Mediterranean. When it sank in April 1587, this merchant ship was in the wrong place at the wrong time – it was sunk with the warships of Sir Francis Drake and his fleet off Cadiz.
Source: Instituto Andaluz del Patrimonio Historico (IAPH), Archeologia Postmedievale, Congreso Iberoamericano de Arqueología Náutica y Subacuática